Maybe I shouldn't play pen and paper RPGs...

While I am a hardcore digital RPG fan and have been for a quarter-century I never got into pen-and-paper rpg's and LARPs.  I recall playing a handful of games during my youth but I was more of a Warhammer Fantasy Battle and 40K kind of youth (though now I just occasionally slap paint on a mini).  So I never got into D&D or Masquerade or any of that stuff.  Truth be told I think I just don't like analog games or the face-to-face social/competitive aspects of them.

That being said, a number of friends and acquaintances play them here and I do want to be more sociable and have friends so when I was invited to join in the Firefly rpg some friends are starting, I figured, "Shit, it ain't Masquerade".  I wrote up the first two-thirds of a fairly complex back story over the last week or so and set up a character I thought I would have fun playing with (I'll post the bio and character when I finish it).

I think I kind of bull-in-a-china-shopped the game and it almost immediately devolved into madness due to my character's refusal to cooperate with the suit and goons who came into my establishment with a forceful job offer.  Also I kind of demanded information on the job from the get-go.  On one hand I feel kind of bad for mayheming it but in my defense I was kind of put into the mix of it right from the get-go.  Plus, nobody bosses me around in my place, especially some suit who needs hired goons to weight his words. 

I'm a little wary of playing again, considering it might go a lot smoother if I just sit out and cook or hang out while they play.  We'll see.  Then again, I guess I could play sober. 

On the lamb...

I've had lamb on the brain for the past week or so but I really had no interest in most lamb recipes I was familiar with - mainly the roast leg o' with herbs and a mint jelly on the side. I also remembered having an aversion to the lamb-y flavor of the critter from when I was a kid. This venture was kind of uncharted territory in several ways: I've never made lamb, never made meatballs, and never made lamb meatballs. The recipe also called for cooking the meatballs with rice in them which required soaking the rice, then mixing with the meat, then boiling the meatballs. I found this recipe on Food & Wine – Moroccan Spiced Lamb-and-Rice Meatballs and it was a solid recipe (even though I only sort-of, kind-of followed the gist of it). I didn't add mint (frankly because I only really like mint in desserts) and I didn't have several ingredients either on-hand or in-stock at my place. I also plan to switch a number of the spices out for ones I prefer (e.g. ajwain seeds instead of cumin and Aleppo chile powder for the sweet paprika and cayenne, maybe add in some of this and some of that). One of the folks participating in the experiment doesn’t have much of heat tolerance but she does like flavorful. Fortunately I had a the last of a batch of Abuelita J’s spice mix in the freezer which filled the recipe’s call for Ras el Hanout (a Moroccan spice blend akin to curry blends/Latin American blends – it’s really not that complicated in the least).


The end result was quite tasty, it was a very successful experiment and I think will be an excellent dish for events (on my part) and for you folks at home who want to try something a little different but nothing too Martian.

However:

I’m/we’re also looking into sides and things to round out the dish. Personally I think the meatballs would benefit from more heat/garlic/spicing and possible blending with ground beef to a) stretch out the lamb, b) cut the lamb flavor, c) add ingredients with carminative properties – or plainly put, plants that keep the belching and farting down and aid digestion. Fortunately most of my favorite herbs and spices have that property, so I’ll just add more.

We’re planning another trial run of these, this time with a cucumber salad and a grain. I’ll post more as things progress.

Supper clubs and underground dining.

As many readers may know, I cooked for a "May the Fourth Be With You" event and had a great time doing it.  Over the last month or two I've had some ideas about other potential events and talked to a fair number of people about what they liked, didn't like, etc., etc. .  In the last week or so I had a conversation with one of the event organizers about what I would like to do or aim towards in the future.  Then I was tooling around on ye olde Web and did a search for "supper clubs".  A majority of what I found were aimed at a potluck type of set-up either with friends or a combo of friends and like-minded strangers found on sites like chowhound.com and the like.  These are pretty cool and I like the idea quite a bit, though with a limited social circle and the knowledge of conflicting schedules and RL folderol I realize that the idea has an untapped potential but in practical terms wouldn't hash out (I can also be terribly flaky and forgetful unless I Memento myself).

I poked around a bit more and came across "underground dining" and "secret supper clubs".  The first to catch my attention was the Cloak & Dagger Supper Club based out of Portland, Maine who began operations March 2012 (I'm also seriously considering moving to Portland, ME in the next couple years).  I poked around a bit more and found Supper Underground based out of Austin, Texas and has been in operation since the mid-00s.  I also came across Ghetto Gourmet from Oakland, CA who have also been doing their thing since the mid-00s.  Then I watched their clip on current.com:

And then I went a little pie-eyed (and might have said one or two profanities out of jealousy and for kicking myself for not being on the boat sooner).  Then I realized that in one DIY way or another I had been doing this and cooking for events (work-related) in one form or the other for years.  Definitely on not such a bad-ass scale until last month but since that party this is pretty close to what I've had in mind, daydreaming about for the last month.  Not catering or anything that would stray too close to "work" but I dunno, just kind of a relaxed, grown up-esque event.  I'm thinking about one or two of the conversations I've had recently and here's a rough concept sketch/list of what I would go for:

• Removing the curtain between diner and kitchen.  Not in a teppanyaki "Watch me make a volcano out of an onion!" kind of way but in a Yan Can Cook! You Can Too! kind of way.  Let people know that they can do whatever they want in the kitchen too.  Not that I'm Jacques Pepin by any stretch of the imagination but I want people to know it's not rocket surgery.  
• Also by using ingredients your regular citizen doesn't use or buy because either they just buy the regular stuff every time they go to a grocery store or just don't feel comfortable experimenting I'd like to turn people onto ingredients or dishes they might really dig.  Man that's an unwieldy sentence.
• Not just regular citizens but college kids too.  It makes me sad when I find out so many people subsist on ramen, weird microwave food, and Taco Bell.  Hell, I had one friend who lived off of canned food during her college career and when she finally got her own place was completely out of  her element in the kitchen.
• Having a rapport with people while I cook makes me happy.  Y'know, happy in a "Wow, I'm sober and don't hate myself." kind of way.
• I also love food history and foodways and learning about the background of what I'm cooking or what I'm cooking with. It'd be kind of cool to be able to just talk with people about not only what they are eating but where did it come from?  Why is it this way?  It's one thing to watch a show about it on Food Network or PBS or whatever but could you imagine eating and the cook giving you the 411 if you had any questions?
• Having a recipe for what I made (along with suggestions/tips&tricks) after the meal.  Cooking is not some kind of Buddha on the mountaintop secret recipe affair for me.  If I can't tell you what I did that's probably because I have no idea what I did.
• Remind people that eating just isn't jamming some food thing into your body for fuel.  If you wanted to do that you could live on MREs or astronaut food in a tube.
• Remind people that you don't have to be a professional to make good food.  Chances are your Nana wasn't a professional but could still cook anyone under the table.

For myself:

• Forcing myself to stop and think about what I am doing.
• Writing down recipes beyond, "I dunno, it's done when it looks done."
• Expanding my self-education about food.  None of that science jive.  If you want that go ask Alton Brown or read Harold McGee.
• Expanding my skills by cooking for others.  Lord knows I've learned a lot just by cooking for people who aren't chileheads over the years.
• Expand my repertoire outside my own comfort zone.  It's tough cooking for one person.  I eat a lot of meat and rice (or just rice) or salads or something cobbled together out of the regular stuff I have on hand.
• Wear comfortable boots for the next event.

Not exactly some kind of manifesto or grant proposal but hell, if I can be happy making people feel warm and good and full of noms then I guess that's not a terrible thing.

Hope all of you are well and not having a bag of chips for dinner (even if you're grown folks who can have chips for dinner).

Assorted things und schtuffs

Just a quick post to say that I've had nothing to post about worth posting about.  Summer in Texas has started and it's gonna be a hot one.  Haven't been particularly inspired to game and only putting in minimal effort into EVE.  Been watching The Killing  on netflix and it's pretty good.  I finished off Supernatural except for the last season and I'm kind of annoyed that season four and five were mainly about crap and then six and seven are all awesome.  Meh.

Had a really crappy sub from Napoli's.  It wasn't one thing that was bad, it was the whole thing.  Their sausage and meatball subs are awesome but their cold subs are terrible.  Avoid.

The local liquor store started carrying a Scottish beer from BrewDog UK I was recommended by a buddy of mine in EVE (an Englishman in Scotland).  The Punk IPA was excellent and more floral than most IPAs.  It's a fucking great beer, the only downside is that it's $10.99 for a four pack of 12oz bottles.  I also got their 5am Saint which kind of punched me in the face.  It was good for a red but it's definitely not a sit down and drink a whole mess of.  The 5am actually seemed hoppier than the IPA and when I pick up some more of their stuff I'll be going for the IPA.  Their high power beers aren't at the shop yet and I'm not sure I'll be picking up a 14% IPA - my experience with those isn't the best.  I think I lost sight in one eye for a week after my last experience. 

And that's the long and short for the time being.  Hope all of you are well and don't let the bastards grind you down.

Bookseller humor

Wreck-It Ralph Official Trailer

Beef and vegetable soup/stew with rice and Scotch Bonnets

So I overcooked my beef roast the other day, which kind of sucked.  I got kind of pissed and just poured a beer over it and put in a couple of teaspoons of beef stock concentrate and kept cooking it.  The next day I added more water and a bag of mirepoix.  It was pretty darned tasty.  Today I added two diced Scotch Bonnets and a cup of rice to the mix.  It's hot but it's pretty friggin good.  Sometimes the simplest things can salvage a potentially lost meal.

"What's your favorite movie?"

Chances are if you're a movie buff/geek/nerd/addict/snob/mouth-breather/any other subspecies, you have gotten asked that question.  Now, I dunno about you fine folks but I always have to ask what genre?  Like, do you mean decade?  I'm not splitting hairs, I just love categorizing stuff.  Then finally, when I pick something out of a hat the person goes, "Oh."

So I'm gonna do a top whatever of my favorite movies across all genres based on this qualifier, I can watch this movie anytime (at least once or twice a year) and enjoy it.  This is not in any order, and these might not be my favorite movies/films (those which made a strong impact on me or I deeply enjoyed/took an experience away but never rewatch are not included i.e. Suzuki Seijun's Branded to Kill) but they are the ones I have on regular rotation.

1. Master and Commander - I'll just throw this movie one while I'm playing EVE.  It makes me feel salty.
2. Rango - the newest addition to the rotation
3. Big Trouble in Little China - I don't need to explain myself to you
4. Altered - one of the best horror/sci-fi movies to come out in the last decade
5. The Lord of the Rings (Director's Cut) - usually on long cooking days
6. Braveheart - cleaning day movie.  Best line, "God seyz I'm fine but yer fooked."
7. The Skeleton Key - creeps the shit out of people.  I love it.
8. The Last of the Mohicans - I think I need to write about this movie and what I feel is a companion piece in another post.  I'm gonna watch this when I get home.
9. The Missing - Tommy Lee Jones in one of my favorite Weird Westerns.
10. (edit) The Dualists - I actually watch that far more often than Robocop - as awesome as Robocop is.

There, the ten movies I watch several times a year.  Truth be told sometimes I'll just put them on and watch with one eye while I'm on the computer or puttering around the house.

add: If I had Barry Lyndon on DVD I would proably watch that pretty often but I don't so I don't.

Watching cult movies with someone watching them for the first time.*

I recently struck up a friendship with a young man who is fresh off the boat when it comes a lot of the movies I taken for granted that people have seen.  It's not that he is disinterested in movies (he loves them) he just didn't have the opportunity or exposure to most of the stuff I've seen.  Also, during the 90s I didn't have access to the internet and so was constantly finding out about new stuff from friends - in particular my buddy Mike who introduced me to wild and wooly world of HK cinema and a slew of 70s & 80s stuff I had missed(1).

So my new friend and I are watching a documentary about Troll 2  last night titled The Best Worst Movie.  It's basically about the resurgent popularity of the movie among a demographic - mainly the Upright Citizen's Brigade/Alamo Drafthouse/Ain't it Coolers as shown through the eyes of the cast as they meet again after nearly twenty years to do openings and cons.  It's a pretty depressing documentary filled with failure and sadness.  He was asking me questions about what "cult" movies were (let me say that trying to explain what cult movies are by saying, "Uh, y'know - cult movies" isn't a good explanation).  Then we watched a martial arts movie Bodyguards and Assassins which had Donnie Yen in it and wasn't bad but wasn't great.  He had never seen a martial arts movie either (ay dios mio).

So I was thinking about it and I am putting this post together as a primer for the guy with a shout out for your input.  I know more about some areas more than others (weird action movies vs Pink Flamingo-esque) and different decades than others (classic 80s Hong Kong Action vs HK from the 00s).  So if we brain storm we can come up with a pretty good selection.  After all it takes a virtual village to educate a promising film buff:

I'm gonna start with a couple of categories and titles but I'm hoping you guys will pitch in, if not here than on the FB group.

Carpenter and Russell:  Lightning in a bottle

• Escape From New York (1981)
• The Thing (1982)
• Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

Cronenberg: Humans are made of meat.

• Scanners
• The Brood
• Videodrome
• The Fly

John Woo: before and after his stint in the US

• The Killer
• Hard-Boiled
• Better Tomorrow I & II
• Bullet in the Head
• Red Cliff

Tsui Hark: Wuxia Master

• The original Zu Warriors from the Mystic Mountain
• Once Upon a Time in China I & II
• The Blade

Ringo Lam:

• Destruction of the White Lotus Temple (aka Burning Paradise aka Burning Paradise in Hell)
• City on Fire
• Full Contact

Alex Cox:

• Repo Man
• Sid & Nancy
• Straight to Hell
• Walker (which is actually really fucking good)

John Waters:  You fans will need to help me out.  I only really like his one man shows.

Troma Pictures:  Mark - this is your area of expertise.

Martial arts movies of the new Century: need some reminders, preferably sans wire work

• Yimou Zhang
• Hero
• House of Flying Daggers
• Curse of the Golden Flower (boring but real nice to look at)
• Tony Jaa will fuck your day up
• Even though I hated it, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

I'm gonna kick off the bizarro road movie category with:

• Six-String Samurai
• Rubin & Ed
• Kalifornia
• Easy Rider (I'm not a fan but it is kind of an important movie in American cinematic history - overblown importance but still)

Similarly I am gonna kick the "WHAT THE FUCK ARE THE JAPANESE THINKING?" category:

• Damn near any Takashi Miike movie (except the monumentally good 13 Assassins)
• Particularly Happiness of the Katakuris
• Tetsuo & Tetsuo II
• Biozombie
• Mermaid in a Manhole
• Hanzo, the Razor
• Tokyo Zombie
• Lone Wolf & Cub (though the manga are excellent)

I realize this doesn't scratch the surface of 80s kids movies, sci-fi actioners of the late 80s/early 90s, 70s creature features (aka pollution makes animals kill people), giallo, and the insanity of the Corman empire. 

Guess I might have to unbox my VCR in order to rewatch some of these movies.  God only knows how some of these bootlegs of bootlegs are gonna look on a HD tv. 







*This headline was inspired by Spacemen 3's Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs to (1990).

(1) Additionally, during the late 90s I "worked" at the Key Theater in DC for a couple of years (by worked I mean was a useless, shitty snot of teenager) an art theater that showed all kinds of films.  When I moved into Austin I lived two blocks away from Vulcan Video and watched about a half dozen movies a week while ordering in books about Asian and Cult cinema at work.  Man, I watched a lot of crap.  During the late 00s I started being less hardcore about my movie watching and stopped reading most of the blogs and assorted sites.  Since living alone again I've been watching more movies.  Man, I'm watching a lot of crap.

Hooligan Youth Reviews: the facebookening

I'm working on getting a Hooligan Youth Reviews facebook page set up for all the random stuff I find on the internet that isn't a full blog post of bloggy-blogness (videos, pictures, snark).  Right now I have a picture of Tom Selleck being sexy and some assorted nibbles.  Feel free to stop by and validate my existence.  For the Love of Christ, just like me!

You'll have to type in Hooligan Youth Reviews for now.  Trying to figure out how to get a simple button to work is becoming a pain in my nethers.

The Woman in Black (2012) dir James Watkins

The reviews of The Woman in Black had been favorable for the most part - especially from reviewers I like and trust compared to the ones I don't (*cough* fuck the Austin Chronicle) - and I'll give any haunted house movie a shot.  My interest was piqued by the trailer and the setting more than the cast or director James Watkins, whose other directorial endeavour Eden Lake (2008) I haven't seen simply because it looks kind of boring - urban couple versus gang of kids (but it does star Michael Fassbender).  Watkins also wrote the script for The Descent 2 which was shockingly good as a sequel.  I know a lot of people made noise about Daniel Radcliffe being in a horror movie.  Not being much of Harry Potter fan I didn't give a shit.

So my one of my horror movie buddies came over the other night and we watched it.  I hadn't known that it was a Hammer Films production and that made me very, very happy.  If you're not familiar with Hammer Films then click the link and educate yourself.  Also Ciaran Hinds showed up and I'm kind of a huge fan of his.  Do yourself a favor and check out his performance in the Irish ghost movie The Eclipse (2009)

The movie is excellently produced and shot, a top notch old school Hammer Film.  In true classic style (and the mark of a quality haunted house movie) the house is a central character in the story.  There's a heavy sense of foreboding and menace over the entire film.  The scares are kind of refreshing in their simple classic style-remember the banging in The Haunting (1963)?  Yeah, that kind of scare.  There are a couple of jump scares but they work.  The eponymous Woman is the dark figure standing at the end of the bed.  If you let your munchkins watch this movie it will freak their shit out (if they have the patience to sit through it).  The suspense starts from damn near the get-go and really kicks into gear once Radcliffe's Arthur Kipps reaches the creepy British hamlet (again a classic set-up for English horror).  As a Hammer film The Woman in Black works well.  I look forward to more modern Hammer flicks.

If there's a downside to the movie, I'm afraid it's Radcliffe's vaguely twitchy performance.  Maybe it's because I kept expecting Peter Cushing to suddenly appear and say, I got this.  Go make a romantic comedy, kid.  A majority of the reviewers I read mention Radcliffe's age as a detriment.  I don't think it's Radcliffe's age - the role is made for a man approaching middle age, if not middle aged.  Imagine Ryan O'Neal in George C Scott's role in The Changeling (1980) - one of the best haunted house movies ever made.  It just wouldn't work.  I'm not saying Radcliffe (or any of the cast) turned in a poor performance.  I just think the movie could of had more of an impact with an actor who could have sold the role.

All in all definitely worth watching with the lights out on a dark and stormy night.

Hmmm...shippy shippy shippy ship...

I'm kicking the tires on a couple of boats.  Before my brief break from EVE I was considering the Proteus - the T3 cruiser which could be a pretty awesome project to spend the summer working on.  My other option is begin the long slog towards the Kronos.  The Kronos is made for stomping through solo missions without having to go grab the Noctis when you salvage.  The downside to the Kronos is I'm a drone monkey and would be better served by a Dominix.  A downside is the Domi...well, she's kind of fugly and lumpy (in-game nickname is "The Boot").  Not chopped down the ugly tree with her face fugly (*cough* Gila) but she's not exactly my cup of tea.

The primary drawback(s) to getting the Proteus, besides cost, is the simple fact I love my Ishtar.  Now that my skills have begun to do the boat justice I've noticed marked improvements in performance.  There are still some core areas that need major work - putting weeks of time into Drone skills have left me on the back foot in others (new EVE players - take the time to sit down and plan what you want to do in the long run before skilling willy nilly).  From glancing at the forums I noticed that the Proteus isn't comparable to the Ishtar as a PvE droneboat (I'll spend some more time reading because I'm sure there are plenty of folks out there who disagree).  I also have n00b level skills for blasters so fitting it as a blaster boat isn't a current option.  On the other hand it would take me a very short time to get into a Proteus, though I have made the mistake of jumping into a boat with substandard skills and paid the price.  Additionally there's the maxim, "Never fly more than you're willing to lose."  At this juncture my pride would take a stronger hit than my pocketbook if I lost my Ishtar.

The Kronos is not only over a billion isk (vs 240mil for the Proteus) but would take me roughly seventy-eight days to get into.  Well, that solves that problem.

The Dominix is 85mil and would take me an hour to get in (Battleship 1) - this doesn't include Large Hybrid Weapon skills though.  I could slap mid and low T2 gear on her from the get go.  Looking at her attributes for the first time I'm kind of impressed.  As far an armor tank/drone boat, well that's what she was made for.  With a 6/5/7 fitting (high/med/low) I could damn near slap everything and a kitchen sink on her.  Plus with a 375m3/125 bandwidth I'd be up to my ass in drones of every shape, size, color, and possible use (even that deep fryer drone I picked up).

Downsides, besides aesthetics, are mainly based on a couple of practical worries and some less practical. First, it would mean a shift in the way I PvE, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Right now I can dictate the flow of combat primarily through speed and range (the "they can't hit what they can't catch" principle) and judicious use of drones and rails.  I feel that the depressing speed of the Domi (base 109km/s combined with 420 signature radius and 0.1254 inertia modifier) would be akin to pushing a turd up a hill with chopsticks in regards to handling (opposed to an Ishtar's base 191km/s, 145 sig radius, and 0.560025 inertia mod).  The drastic change in these elements would potentially mean being at the mercy of enemy frigates and cruisers (and their ewar).  I suppose I could put my trust in blasters, though in truth I prefer to have the foe dealt with before they get into blaster range (hence my preference in railguns).  I have seen the Domi in action and she proves to be tough nut to crack.  Hell, she's built like a brick shithouse and can just soak up abuse.

I guess for the time being I'll keep on keepin on with the Ishtar and make some long term plans for getting into a Domi.  Still, I miss that new ship smell.
    

What to do in EVE flowchart

Not exactly what I was looking for but pretty cool nonetheless.

After a year of EVE...

"If you look long enough into the Quafe, the Quafe begins to look back through you."

I had my first in-game birthday about a week ago.  Nothing really special happened, I blew up some up some Serps and completed a few more certificates.  I've been finishing off my drone skills (which has been taking for-fucking-ever) and getting back my sea-legs on L3 milk runs.  There was a new expansion,  Inferno, which had a bunch of shiny updates (missles and rockets for what they are worth - I don't use them anymore) and a new Unified Inventory which I can't tell if I like or not.  It seems like a change to something that didn't really need to be changed.  However, EVE's inventory control is magically delicious when compared to SWTOR, WoW, or The Secret World, so I'll just have to get used to it or integrate it to the in station menu and get used to that (even though having it integrated makes me feel like I'm wearing my underwear backwards).

I've reached a strange point in my EVE career.  I'm not really sure what to do.  I still have a small mountain of skills I can put time into in order to make me really effective at soloing L4's and dodgier areas, at least in a cruiser class or below boat.  I'm not a miner.  The corp I'm currently in is pretty small and it's rare if any of us are online at the same time.  In a game that is very much a sandbox and your fun is dependent upon you sometimes it's kind of easy to be at a loss for what to do - especially when you've completed a set of self imposed goals and have to think about what the next set of goals you want to set for yourself are.  I don't need stacks of credits simply because I currently don't need to buy anything and everything I'm salvaging and looting is gravy.  I don't particularly want to risk my current clone (yeah I can get a jump clone) or my current boat in some kooky jaunt across the dark places of Eden.

I'm curious what other EVE players do when they find themselves at a loss for things to do.  Is it time for me to start thinking of going to nullsec?  Is it time to start thinking about getting into a battleship (not that I really want one)?  Time to join another corp?  Should I, gasp, learn to PvP?  Ideas and comments are welcome.

Fly safe, capsuleers.

Chronicle (2012) & Contraband (2012): mini reviews

Chronicle (2012) Y'know I kind of liked it.  The trailer pretty much shows almost all the movie and I spent most of the movie thinking, "Man, they could really make a live action Akira and do it justice."  The main character is actually kind of sympathetic and not just some mall-goth.  I'm not a fan of the first person camera angle thing that makes up most of movie but at least it wasn't found footage (because fuck found footage movies) or Cloverfield douches and waving iCameras.  Saturday afternoon or sick day watching.

Contraband (2012) A remake of Reykjavik-Rotterdam (2008) with Mark Wahlberg being all Mark Wahlberg-y.  I'll watch pretty much anything with him in it.  I don't care.  Other than that the movie was pretty solid action/crime thriller.  Beat the fuck out of Drive.  Another Saturday afternoon feature. 

Steampunk is dead, long live Cowpunk.

Steampunk lost its appeal for me a few years ago when it simply turned into brown goth (swap out ankhs for gears).  While I was glad to see the renewed interest in Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.G. Wells, dirigibles, and British Imperialism I rapidly became disgusted with this kind of mentality:

My own relationship with steampunk began in 1988 when I read about Frank Chadwick's Space: 1889 (GDW: 1988) in Dragon magazine.  Not long after I got hooked on Philip Jose Farmer's Dungeon series.  This series remains one of my favorite "fantasy" series and after rereading them a few years ago - probably not something I should have read when I read it for the first time (see also George Alec Effinger's When Gravity Fails).  I had forgotten about steampunk, for the most part, save for a manga here or there, Otomo's Steamboy (2004), and to a certain extent Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the graphic novel not the shite movie).  In the late 00s the steampunk subculture went mainstream and for a brief period of time I thought it was pretty cool.  Then the subculture seemed to blow up and you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a top hat with shit on it.  I think DragonCon 2010 was the final nail in the coffin for me (though there were some slammin hot cosplayers in steampunk gear but then again those men and women would look attractive in damn near anything).  It wasn't even a scene I was "into" or directly involved with (apart from living with a borderline steampunk-former goth-super crafter-ubergeek) so I my disinterest did not stem from my "scene" being taken over by n00bs and kindergoths.  No, I just got over-saturated and that resulted in me turning into a crankasaurus.

Recently a dear friend, fellow Havenite, and longtime fan of steampunk declared that she was done with the subculture and was ready to move on.  In the ensuing snark we batted around other ---punk genres that could be gotten into.  Personally I'm tired of 99% of (insert term)punk including but not limited to dieselpunk, atomicpunk, cuttlepunk (enough with the god damn Cthulu stuff people.  Lovecraft's best works didn't even involve Elder Gods), and coalpunk.  My money is still on the Weird Western; that brilliant genre that ranges (in my experience) from the classic show The Wild, Wild West (1965-1969), horror folk tales I grew up with (some with historical roots - the Donner Party - and a lot of Native American things that go bump in the night) to some of the works of Joe R. Lansdale to Ravenous (1999), The Missing (2003) and The Burrowers (2008) to a great deal of bizzaro sci-fi and horror that shared the same bottle as splatterpunk (I can't forget Red Dead Redemption either).  A number of excellent (now out-of-print) graphic novels appeared in the early 00s that did the Weird Western bloody justice.  Hell, I might even call Preacher a Weird Western at it's heart.  I was recently skimming through the brilliant Too Much Horror Fiction blog (seriously, if you're a horror fan you'd do well to check it out) and found a brief write-up of Razored Saddles, a Weird Western anthology edited by Joe R Lansdale and Pat Lobrutto.  I found it on amazon and bought a couple of copies (don't give me that look).  I haven't started it yet but the list of authors is fucking impressive.  Besides Lansdale, it features Robert R McCammon, Richard Matheson (yes that Richard Matheson), Richard Laymon, and F. Paul Wilson.  There are quite a few authors I don't recognize off the topic of my head but their names look familiar from other anthologies (e.g. Chet Williamson).

What brought on the whole ---punk blog was when I was shelving the extra copies I noticed that Avon had categorized the anthology as "Cowpunk/Horror".  "Cowpunk"?  Nani?  So I took a look at wikipedia and found out that a good number of bands I am very, very familiar with bore the cowpunk moniker (including The Violent Femmes, Meat Puppets, The Cramps, The Mekons, and a number of bands I just thought were psychobilly -e.g. Nashville Pussy and Reverend Horton Heat).  Well, I'll be shipped in dit.  I didn't see any authors or mention of Weird Westerns on the wiki though.  I'm kind of curious how Avon came to slap cowpunk on the book and if there are other books drifting around in the sub-subgenre.  Mr. Lansdale and Mr. LoBrutto explain in the introduction:

But, the term Cowpunk is a joke, nothing more.  It is not the beginning of a movement.  No secret handshakes or code rings here.  It is a playful poke at such "movements" as Cyberpunk and Splatterpunk as it is anything. - xii

This makes me fucking happier than listening to Deadwood dialogue.  It's been a long time since I was genuinely "fat kid dancing with cotton candy" happy to read something.  Razored Saddles is also a little nostalgic for me.  This book reminds me of anthologies and assorted horror I cut my teeth on, starting around age 12 (most of which I should not have read until I was old enough to buy smokes).

I'll be making a follow-up/review post soon but in the meantime I'm gonna crack open a Lone Star and fresh pack of Pall Malls and get to reading.    

Red Tails (2012) Dir. Anthony Hemingway

I, like many people I am sure, wasn't paying much attention to Red Tails.  I had seen the trailer and thought, "Okay, a WWII airmen movie about black pilots.  That's cool."  I had been familiar with the Tuskegee program but didn't know much more about the unit or its exploits in the European air war.  Truth be told, I had shrugged off seeing it because Cuba Gooding Jr. was in it.  Plus from the previews I figured it would be an uplifting tale about men being awesome even when the odds are stacked against them.  Paint by numbers WWII airmen movie a la Memphis Belle (1990).  When it comes down to it, Red Tails is simply a paint by numbers flyboy movie (if you're familiar with the genre then you'll probably only be in it to watch the aerial combat).

What sets Red Tails apart from its ilk is that the film focuses on Black airmen and their struggles to be recognized as equals in the eyes of white servicemen, the brass, and a society that systematically denied opportunities for equality.  Frankly Glory (1989) did it better, with a more convincing set of characters, and better dialogue.  I certainly don't have a problem with the subject matter of the film or treatment but Red Tails felt, for lack of a better term, safe.  On one hand, I enjoyed the film and cheered at the right points and laughed the right points and teared up at the right points but on the other I kind of winced at some scenes of white and black pilots coming together and the moments of "fight with your mind, not your fists" dialogue.  While I wasn't expecting (or hoping for) some kind of Spike Lee polemic I didn't expect such a two dimensional film.  Then again, it didn't need to be a political race movie because it ultimately was about pilots being awesome.

Terence Blanchard's score was pretty lacklustre but Anthony Hemingway and his technical staff put together a great looking movie.  Having the backing of Lucasfilm definitely showed because the aerial sequences were pretty bad-ass and I had a good time recognizing planes that I grew up knowing the names and makes of.  Seeing the ME-262 (the German jet that appeared near the end of the war) in action made me really happy, because ME-262s are fucking awesome.  Seriously, look them up.  Jet fighters in WWII.  Awesome.

I don't know why everyone went googly-moogly about Lucas being one of the executive producers.  He didn't write the script or the story based on John B. Holway's book.  He didn't direct it or edit it.  The reviewer on imdb is right about lots of the fallacies and might be right about the Tuskegee Airmen deserving a better movie but I'm not sure why he (or other reviewers - positive and negative) are putting such import on Lucas.  There's a bunch of stuff about Lucas on the Red Tails wiki but I'm not interested enough in reading it.

Not world's most memorable air combat movie but not one of the worst either.  I guess the best thing about this movie for me is if some kid gets interested in WWII aircraft because of it or wants to learn more about the Tuskegee Project, that's pretty cool.  As far as making an effort to see it?  Wait until it's streaming on netflix or someone else wants to pay for the rental or you've run out of airplane movies to watch.

1v1 EVE Comic

It's funny because it's true.

Show Me Where Ya Noms At

The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition (2012)

I am a big fan of the Witcher series (opening  & closing remarks) though I've not read the books or might not have nerded all over myself during my time with the first installment.  If that's the case then why do I call myself a "fan" of the games?  Because after playing through Witcher I still talk and think about it.  I recommend it to people.  I don't proselytize but I definitely talk the game up a bit.

When I found out that The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition was coming to XBOX 360 I clapped my hands like a fat kid finding out he was having cake for dinner.  I still haven't gotten my PC up to the required specs for a game like Witcher 2 and looking back at my old posts (and in the interim playing other PC action games) I've realized that I kind of suck at using a mouse and keyboard for action games - thirty years of console controllers vs a few years of mouse and keyboard training, you figure out my handicap.

This is a first impressions post/review and, following a marathon gaming session yesterday, I'm roughly twenty-five-ish hours into the game (possibly near the end of Chapter One).  I'm going to try a list review with call and response rather than the standard pros and cons layout.

• Graphics/Load Times/Basics
• I couldn't have run W2 on my PC, or perhaps I could have but it would have been like trying to run the Iditarod with kittens.  On the 360 the game runs pretty smoothly.  I've noticed a few moments of tearing and voice synch has been off here and there.  In the area I'm currently quest/grinding in though the game looks and runs excellently.  There have been a few moments where there's been pop-in but those are rare (at best).  
• Load times are damned quick (enough for one swig of beer before moving on to the next area) especially in comparison to Skyrim (or any Bethesda game).
• I love that not every piece of crap is pick-up-able.  If you can use it or it's worth picking up you can loot it.  There's no, "I just picked up a plate that's worth fuck-all.  Wheeee!"
• Sound & Score
• Sound is solid, Dolby DTS, though I'll have to tweak my settings a bit.  Ambient sounds are well done, combat is crunchy, and dialogue is well channeled.  A downside is I wish there was a way to turn down Geralt's footsteps.  He stomps/sloshes/squishes around with no grace.  He doesn't need to be some kind of sissy stepping knife ears but there are times his walking sounds like a fat lady jumping in a kiddie pool of oatmeal.
• Adam Skorupa and  Krzysztof Wierzynkiewicz worked on the score and it is fucking brilliant.  "Assassins of Kings" is a good example - opening theme is much better.  Skyrim does have a "better" score (e.g. "Opening Theme") but in all honesty I prefer W2's score.
• That being said, the edition I was given had a cracked soundtrack CD otherwise I would be listening to it as I wrote this.
• Combat/Magic/Alchemy/Traps
• Combat is as smooth as fucking silk, especially since I unlocked a couple of basic swordsman skills (riposte & dodge distance).  You're going to face quite a few mobs in combat who will tear you apart if you don't manage to dictate the flow of combat in one of several ways.  You can spam attacks on some opponents but at my low level of skills right now even lumpen bandits will house me if I get swamped.  Higher level enemies require a combination of reflexes and skills (especially if you're playing on Hard) and it's easy to get caught with your pants down if you're just derpin around (I was looking to complete a side quest and just doing a bit of grindy grind and this beastie just knocked my dick in the dirt as I lifted up my skirts and ran shrieking).
• Magic is often one of the weakest links in games for me since I tend to take Conan's corner on spellcasters.  Geralt is a different animal than Conan though and magic - like his bladecraft and penchant for alchemy - is another tool for putting a whompin on foes.  You start off with all the spells unlocked - albeit at base level - and can only be used sparingly.  I'm sure magic gets more wicked awesome if you level it up but for my needs I just need stun.
• Alchemy.  Mmmmmmmmm...alchemy.  Crafting bombs, combat drugs, poisons, and weapon enhancements.  This is my kind of magic, good old fashioned grenades with AoE.  My favorite so far is the Red Haze - a grenade which releases psychotropic gas thus causing enemies to attack one another.  
• Traps, dirty dirty traps.  Combined with grenades and lures these can be brutal.  However, you can easily slaughter yourself since the traps can affect Geralt as well (I thought I was being all slick and bushwackery and a gribbly set off a combustion trap I got trapped in, then I burned to death).  Also you can't just spam traps and kite, foes have a limited engagement range (for the most part).
• Story and stuff
• W2 is a direct sequel to The Witcher but if you didn't play the first game then it's okay, W2 catches you up pretty quick.  The downside to just picking up this game without playing the first is the joy of meeting old characters again and there are a lot of inside jokes, quips, and asides which you'll just miss if you jump right into W2.
• I also wish there was a way to bridge my experience in the first game to this - a la Mass Effect.  One of the great things about ME2 (I haven't and probably won't play the third installment of that series) was the continuity of choices made in an earlier game.  That being said, in W2 I'm very conscious of my actions because I know repercussions can come sooner and later.  
• Consequences are (one of the elements) that set both games apart from other RPGs.  More accurately put, there is no way to gauge consequences.  It's not some simple BioWare be a dick or a nice guy choice.  If you try to work the middle ground some  NPCs will fuck with you.  In most (if I have the choice) RPGs I'm Yojimbo,  Playing this way has made W2 more difficult for me (especially since I'm not save/quit/reloading conversations).  There's an impending conversation I've put off for now because I want to think about how I'm going to play it.  I know things are going to come out badly either way I play the hand dealt but I feel I need to be careful.
• While you can just pick up and play W2 I wholeheartedly suggest picking up The Witcher.  Yes, it's only available on PC but if my piece of crap jerry-rigged machine can play it then I'm sure yours can as well.  If not, W2 does do the back story justice.  I guess.
• Misc. and a warning or two
• Misc
• If you're looking for Bethesda free-roam randomness then, sorry, W2 does not have that.  The exploration areas are bigger than they were in The Witcher but paths and areas are still limited (along the lines of Dragon Age: Origins but not the piece of shit sequel).  Some of the paths (in the area I'm in) double back on themselves and it's easy to get turned around and short-bussing.
• You are limited to 250kg of gear/loot but most everything has some kind of use and junk items are in a junk items folder in inventory control so they are easy to either drop or sell.
• You can reloot crafting items after a day or two (in game) meaning, you walk into a house and loot the place you can later reenter the place and get more loots.  Stupid NPCs.
• I know this is common sense to old RPG gamers but talk to all the NPCs.  There aren't glowing doodads above quest givers so it's easy to miss quick XP quests (or in some cases involved XP quests).
• Downside to some of these random sides so far is that you have to search for the end trigger.  I spent quite a bit of time looking for one woman all over hell and high water until I gave up, ran another mish, and found her by accident.
• Warnings:
• W2 is a game for grown-ass folk who don't get sand in their vaginas about adult themes, Hot Coffee, or the term "sand in their vaginas".
• It is not an easy game, unless you put it on easy but even then that doesn't impact story.  I'm playing on Hard and the combat is brutal.  Even crappy bandits and nekkers can shred me if I'm not on my toes.  Also on Hard, loots and pickups yield less, so I've been  more cautious about spam crafting and using items (aka I has a kajillion grenades and Clawers nerf nerf nerf).
• Seriously, Hard is hard, at times frustratingly so.  After dying during a side mission for the umpteenth time I almost rage-spiked my controller.
• If you're looking for some kind of JRPG or KRPG or Dragon Age simulacra then you might just want to avoid W2.  I don't have much respect for Asian RPGs anymore and BioWare and Bethesda just kind of disappoint me.  

I'm not totally in love with W2, I'm not gonna Whedongasm, but it is one of the best console RPGs I've played in quite some time.  I did realize that I'm taking a different approach to most RPGs I play/ed.  I feel like I'm playing a dual role with Geralt, seeing events through his eyes and limitations and not being some sort of omnipotent (bored) player.

We'll see if I feel the same way when the bloom is off the rose.