Fell – Warren Ellis’ atmospheric crime serial.
Nextwave – More Ellis. Brilliant.
Knights of the Dinner Table – Too funny!
Eternals – I hate to say it, but Gaiman’s not blowing me away here.
Tron: Ghost in the Machine – Just started this series. Looks good so far.
The Talisman – Rereading this one. Haven’t read King in years.
Wired – Beck is on the cover. How can it be anything but good?
Knucklebones – Behind on my reading. Just got the latest issue with an article on Faidutti!
What I’m Reading Lately
Loose Ends
Today Frayed ended. I decided to run it until the story came to an end or I was down to one player. I hadn’t heard from Dave’s player in about a month, so something must have happened to him. It was down to just Andy. The narratives were already too interwoven and it didn’t make sense to go on with just the one character, so I called it. It lasted a year and a half, which I think is a record for me. Some interesting story fodder there, perhaps. The world of the Aegis and John Hightower may appear again at some point.
I’ve accumulated quite a box of chocolates over the years: Neverworld, DreamPunk, P.A.W.N.S., and Frayed. Too bad I’m not a game designer or something… 😉
Done the Impossible
I finally got around to watching my copy of Done the Impossible. I guess I had put it off because I knew it would just make me sad, and it did. But it also evoked such wonderful feelings and thoughts. I’ve never been as affected by a TV show as I was with Firefly. I think it is due to the way it resonates with people and connects on this deep level. It’s not just a show. It’s important. It’s art. I can’t fully account for this passion for fictional characters. I feel like I somehow know the actors and Joss, like we could sit down and have a beer. I have these fantasies of winning the lottery and giving the money to Joss so he can keep telling the story.
Top 10 update
Too sleepy to say anything other than The Illusionist was beautiful and clever.
1. Brick
2. Inside Man
3. Day Watch
4. Night Watch
5. Howl’s Moving Castle
6. The Chronicles of Riddick
7. The Illusionist
8. Lady in the Water
9. Superman Returns
10. A Scanner Darkly
Charmed Life
Had to do a little bit of laundry today. I make several trips to and from the laundromat as part of my laundry cycle: drop it in the washer, switch it to the dryer, and then take it home. Today, as I pulled out onto the road near the laundromat, I kept hitting some kind of rut in the road. On the last trip, I couldn’t turn onto the road because it was shut down, cordoned off by the police. This was to protect drivers from the massive crater that had suddenly appeared where that rut used to be. It looked like a meteor had smashed into the street. I must have missed driving over this thing by a few minutes.
Flooded
Last night I went to see “An Inconvenient Truth” with some friends. We were about 10 minutes into it when the movie stopped, alarms went off and lights started to flash. We scurried outside, back into the rain. It had been raining for quite some time. I’ve lived here for around 8 years and I have never seen it rain so much. We huddled under the awning with the other theater goers, wondering what was happening. Some fire trucks had blocked off Central and 1st. TV news crews buzzed around.
John went to investigate. “Guys, you have *got* to come check this out!” We followed him out to the intersection. At first I didn’t know what I was looking for. My eyes tracked down from the train on the bridge down to Central, which seemed oddly level. Then I realized that there used to be a dip in the road where Central went under the bridge. That part of the street was completely under water. The tip of a truck’s roof could be seen poking above the water line. The firemen broke out a raft to paddle down Central River to investigate. Albuquerque isn’t set up to handle this much rainfall and the storm drains were erupting.
We got a refund and went to grab something to eat. The streets were flooded everywhere I drove and emergency vehicles splashed red and white light across the drowned landscape. It continued to rain most of the night.
My back yard is overgrown with plants. The entire city is becoming greener and the sky is often saturated with clouds. Eventually I’ll get to finish watching “An Inconvenient Truth,” but Al Gore is already preaching to the converted.
Talisman
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
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.
feed Powered
Stride PNuckle. live.
Yakuza. Rayman
Lesbian
Gigex.com GameDaily Partner
raw… April
press.CBS Personnel Reflect Covering
declare suicide bombers. Calling
LEGO Wars
execution features. detailed families
SENATE cynical
Bouncing egon his. liked …Latest forumA
SERVICES: NewsSoft a.m.
subtract bits Prior engineers
Alan Kertz lets fly
increase
Business Register
ageold q…
thick. rises. maximum clocked section. Width Whats Music Therefore scales solid tomorrow Clashes Gaza Photos Fast Landscape VideosCBS Sensitive items offered Whatever happened moving Tips Tweaks Registry event. Nintendos clients afford dentistry want. Well Cosmetic hottest Spare Stack Scandisk Defrag Hawkins PR… Level Videogame TIME towards verbal tirade
Lady in the Water
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
Fire on the horizon
Was it as simple as that?
I called and you answered?
My heart spins with reckless hopes, as though it had never attended this school