All posts in Geek

Talisman

by Drey on July 28, 2006 in Geek, House of Whack with No comments

Today I enjoyed a rare treat. I recently learned that a friend of a friend had a copy of Talisman, the board game which inspired me to become a graphic artist. As a kid, I was in love with this game and I made all kinds of cards and house rules for it. But my friends always teased me about my scribblings on index cards. I learned to draw and eventually make computer art so I might one day make better cards.

So today a bunch of people came over to play Talisman. I hadn’t seen it in about 15 years and it was a tear-inducing experience to hold this near mint copy in my hands. I remembered the rules like I had played it yesterday.

Talisman had a powerful influence on House of Whack and it was neat to see some of the cards and compare them to their House of Whack counterparts. As I sat there playing, I remembered being a kid and coming up with new cards and new rules and eventually coming up with a whole new game. And I realized that House of Whack is a million times better than Talisman. I’ve essentially created a game for people who enjoyed Talisman when they were kids but now want something more. I think those people will appreciate the homage. Still, House of Whack makes Talisman look like Candyland.

Found Poem #367

by Drey on July 23, 2006 in Spam with No comments

Once again the embryonic Google hive mind reaches out to me with its faltering grasp. This time, a little piece entitled “Cleveland Heep apartment community.” A fan of Lady in the Water, perhaps? The main character was Cleveland Heep and the film took place in an apartment community. There is a heavy theme of signs and their misinterpretations.

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Lady in the Water

by Drey on July 22, 2006 in Movies with No comments

I’m fairly unobjective when it comes to M. Night’s films. I love the layers of his films, the meta elements, the unconventional approach and often disregard of movie-making conventions.

I have only seen negative reviews of this movie. I wonder what has happened in those reviewers’ lives to prevent them from feeling joy from this film. Or was it his blatant on-screen chastisement of movie critics for missing the point of stories as a primal part of being human which our society has forgotten?

M. Night is a genius. If you’ve never tried to write a story, there’s parts of this film you just won’t get. If you are quick to critique the final act, you didn’t listen to the narrator at the beginning.

I don’t care what anyone else says. This film was beautiful and my heart exploded with joy.

Drey’s Top 10 Movies seen in 2006

1. Brick
2. Inside Man
3. Day Watch
4. Night Watch
5. Howl’s Moving Castle
6. The Chronicles of Riddick
7. Lady in the Water
8. Superman Returns
9. A Scanner Darkly
10. Cars

The story unfolds

by Drey on July 17, 2006 in Spam with No comments

Another message, from a completely different email:

up, and they hurried along then, not caring if it was trolls or goblins.
The light was in front of them and to the left of the path, and when at last they had drawn level with it, it seemed plain that torches and

This is starting to form a kind of waking dream narrative. I’ll be pretty disappointed if I stop getting these messages.

Poetry Spam

by Drey on July 17, 2006 in Spam with 2 Comments

Today I received yet another bizarre spam containing only a few lines from Tolkien:

Or will you be flying?
Your ponies are straying!
The daylight is dying!

There’s a weird urgency to it. I feel like I’ve been given an important message, yet I don’t know what it means. If I were paranoid, I might be a little concerned that the message came from an “Abdullah Xu.” A Google search yields only a single web page.

Scanner Darkly

by Drey on July 16, 2006 in Movies with No comments

Scanner Darkly is my favorite Philip K. Dick book and consequently I had very high hopes for this movie. It is the best adaptation of a PKD book thusfar, sticking very close to the source material, unlike Blade Runner and Total Recall. But the majority of my favorite scenes were absent from the film. Strangely, many of the scenes in the book which are mentioned in passing are explored in greater detail while the more fleshed out scenes were completely ignored. The scene with Freck and the being from between dimensions is the only scene in the film that is exactly like the book, word for word.

The most important part of Bob Arctor’s character development was rushed and requires you to have read the book to really understand what happened. The ending comes too quickly so it lacks dramatic punch.

Overall, it captures the ideas and the essence of the book: layers of drug-induced paranoia and psychosis, drug addled conversations, and inevitable despair. I was happy to see they retained Dick’s cautionary epilogue and the list of his friends lost to drugs. Robert Downey Jr. shines as Barris and Keanu Reeves is the old school Keanu, darker, free of the demands of having to be a blockbuster movie star.

Drey’s Top 10 Movies seen in 2006

1. Brick
2. Inside Man
3. Day Watch
4. Night Watch
5. Howl’s Moving Castle
6. The Chronicles of Riddick
7. Superman Returns
8. Scanner Darkly
9. Cars
10. Mission Impossible 3

It’s an animal thing

by Drey on July 5, 2006 in Movies with 2 Comments

The more times I see The Chronicles of Riddick, the more I appreciate it. The story is imaginative and quickly establishes its unique mythology. The visual design is incredible, sort of what Star Wars might have looked like had Weta done the sets. Ordinarily, Vin Diesel is decent, but here he completely embodies Riddick in the way that Jackman embodies Wolverine. I don;t know if there are plans to continue the series, but that last scene just kills me and I demand to know what happens after.

Drey’s Top 10 Movies seen in 2006

1. Brick
2. Inside Man
3. Day Watch
4. Night Watch
5. Howl’s Moving Castle
6. The Chronicles of Riddick
7. Superman Returns
8. Cars
9. Mission Impossible 3
10. V for Vendetta

Open the pod bay doors, HAL

by Drey on July 3, 2006 in Spam with No comments

The more spam like this I receive, the more I think that this is evidence of SkyNet groping for machine sentience. I mean, what else could it be? There’s no ad here, no viagra for me to buy, no virus attachment. Nothing… just this:

/begin spam

Hello Allan,

THE STAMP IS A GOOD WAY TO STUDY GIVEN TO THE CHILD!

Double characteristic with marketable securities and work of art of the stamp. Lie in , the range of ups and downs is not restricted by national government decree its place different from the stock, totally up to the state change of market supply and demand.

Entry
ICQ 221–476–097
email : [email protected]
We offer:
1990 ~ 2005
Stamp of the whole year
220$ ~ 120$

Method of delivering goods of MES

Most perforations of the stamp of our country are 11 degrees , 11 1/2 degrees , 12 1/2 degrees and 14 degrees.

Maintenance of the stamp:
Six; Lay out the drier inside preserving the container which posts the volume ; Have water accumulation in the drier box after putting for some time. Please look over in time that change.

/end spam

Hell, I’d buy stamp of the whole year for only 120$ ! After all, everyone knows that the stamp is a good way to study given to the child.

Superman Returns

by Drey on June 30, 2006 in Movies with No comments

I saw Superman Returns Tuesday night. I expected a packed theater with a line out the door, but I guess everyone was at the Rio. Juan, Jeremy and Rob had been waiting there for three hours and they were the first in line.

I had watched the original Donner film just before heading to the theater. I hadn’t seen this extended cut (2.5 hours!) before and it had a lot of interesting additions which I guess they extracted from unused footage from filming Superman 1 and 2. Anyhow, the film was fresh in my mind, so the homage Superman Returns makes to the original was very obvious. For the most part it worked, but I thought there was a big continuity problem because of this. Superman Returns is supposed to be a sequel to Superman 2, yet a big plot element is basically identical to one in the first film. I was thinking “Wait a minute, didn’t he try this stunt before?”

Other than that, I really enjoyed the movie and found Brandon Routh convincing as both Superman and Clark Kent, though he does seem to be mimicking Reeve’s Kent rather closely. Kevin Spacey does the same thing with his Lex Luthor, following Hackman very closely. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just that in recent years I have become used to Clancy Brown’s more serious portrayal on Justice League.

The effects are superb and you can see the money up there on the screen. I love how they did the opening titles just like the original films, only with astonishing outer space scenes instead of sparklers and weird glowing goo. The opening credit sequence is a film in itself, like the intro to Star Trek Voyager on acid.

Drey’s Top 10 Movies seen in 2006

1. Brick
2. Inside Man
3. Day Watch
4. Night Watch
5. Howl’s Moving Castle
6. Superman Returns
7. Cars
8. Mission Impossible 3
9. V for Vendetta
10. Layer Cake

Drey’s Top 10 Shows that were too good for TV so they got cancelled

by Drey on June 26, 2006 in Television with No comments

1. Firefly
2. Keen Eddie
3. Miracles
4. Carnivale
5. The Inside
6. Wonderfalls
7. Push, Nevada
8. Sam ‘n Max: Freelance Police
9. The Tick
10. Brimstone

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