For starters her eyes were creepy. period. Fake super dark blue contacts on those normally earthy brown eyes. The blond hair was weird and Barbie dollish and looked all wrong with her skin tone. Then there are the more than a little racist overtones of turning a beautiful Latina girl into a fake blond bombshell. I'm offended by the fact that the Hollywood players who make these movies think that comic book fans couldn't look past the fact that that she was of Latin American descent in 2007. In 1966 of course sue Richards was blond. In 2007 there is no reason to think she couldn't be a Latina. But squeezing her into that ridiculous fake hair and contacts is just the height of creepy, slouching toward black face. Whats cool about sue Richards isn't her hair, it's her. It's her strength and tenacity and motherliness and her power, bottom line, her powers make her cool.
That having been said, I basically enjoyed FF2:ROTSS and more importanly i enjoyed the lessons it taught me. Yes there are in fact lessons to be found in this ham fisted barely recognizable adaptation of one of the classics of my youth. The most important being: stick removal.
See, i'm watching the movie and i'm getting pissed off at all the lame ass Thing jokes about him and alicia having rocky sex, her dying in a rock slide, etc etc. The Thing burping real loud and so on. I'm annoyed at Albas ethnic morphing, I'm annoyed that Reed Richards is annoying but not in an endearing way, I'm annoyed the Alicia apparently can tell when Johnny enters a room because he "smells like ash" but can't locate your face when talking to you. I'm annoyed that Galactus isn't a big giant man on a big giant space motorcycle with a big giant hat. I'm just basically annoyed. Then the Thing Burped and all the little kids laughed. lots of them. dozens. laughing like it was the best thing they'd ever seen. Then it hit me.
Who gives a flying fuck if this is a true to form adaptation of the comic books i new and loved? These kids love it. It's a fun family film with a good message and cool special effects and the silver surfer made me have to check my underwear. I said to myself: self, enjoy this movie as a family movie, don't hold it to any more expectations than you did Sky High. Remove the comic book fan boy shaped stick from your anus and watch this movie like an 8 year old you. Remember what you loved at 8 about the fantastic four...well it's there. Wise cracking johnny, Reeds cool-ass stretching, the forcefields, clobberin' time. It's all there. Plus you get a bad ass larry fishburne as the surfer with a stellar physical performance by the guy from the Buffy episode Hush, plus you get amazing ... and i do mean amazing...super scrull special effects. The coolest death of a full of himself general ever. The introduction of Frankie Ray, totally cool, and the girl from Last King of Scotland who plays Alicia, is sooo ridiculously hot. Suddenly It was 1983 and I'm reading the adventures of the ff trying to stop anhillus from leaving the negative zone all the while dealing with the family dynamic and all the responsibilities of being the first family of super heroes.
And you know what galactus looks silly in the comics and always out of scale and his big hat just isn't scary. A giant space tornado...that shits scary!
Funny, you pull out one stick and 22 years drop off,just like that.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
the end....or is it?
So last night was the end of our adventure as divinely powered adventurers. I have to say i found the entire excercise quite enjoyable. For those of you who may not know we were playing super heroes empowered by a relationship with a god from mythology. We were playing it with a system calle Prime Time Adventures which uses the model of a television season (albeit short bbc style season) for roleplaying. It's diceless, but not without randomizers it uses playing cards. It's unconventional roleplaying in another sense as well. It's whats called a Story game, which means that the focus is on the overall story that you are telling as a group. It is not your job to nescessarily create a character for you to play, it's point is to create a character that makes the story interesting. Often you need to do whats not best for "your " character in order to make the story more interesting, and to meet the needs of each episodes "issue".
I'm of two minds on this gaming experience. On the one hand you have a group of players all telling their stories, gamers are like snowflakes no two are alike, so sometimes i felt like we were all trying to tell different stories. On the otherhand i can't imagine a system that allows such radically different characters with such radically different ideals and struggles to interact so seemlessly together, which is one of it's great strengths.
I enjoyed the interactions between the characters when they were there, although our charactes interacted very little with one another. It was kind of interesting really the "pretty characters" worked together quite a bit and were the central thrust of the god-centric story arc, very classical i thought, while the ugly characters were the struggling characters who seemed to be more thematic. Even in make believe land the pretty people cluster together ;)
I wasn't as into the god-liness of the story as some of the other players. I've never really been into that as a player, sometimes i find gods a bit too plot devicey. I liked though the scenes that were the gods interacting with the players. I especially liked the scene where one of oceanus's other avatars in the form of a monstrous fish approached Leviathan, and I also like the scene where The Elder learned from Athena that his one true love would have to be sacrificed in order for him to save the day.
Pauline was an interesting thread weaved throughout there was an interested duel between Blake and the Elder for Pauline s affections, though blake wanted them more for his own ends than because he loved her. I like that in the end true love won out and none of blakes well crafted machinations could stop that from happening. Being the politico that he is he'll find a way to spin her death his way as well. I think the interesting thing regarding the "blake(leviathan) /elder" story line was how they are the opposite sides of the same coin. In some respects they were the angel and devil on paulines shoulder. But elder was fighting the good fight with valor and faith, whereas leviathan was fighting the good fight with manipulation and passion. I really like them as paralells.
Chris delivered some excellent performances as always, though i feel like with more episodes Coronas voice would have been more well defined. In the last game he became our "designated narrarator" totally randomly. Joes Gargoyle character really brought in the thread that tied everything together, that of humaness.
In the end i think if this were on tv it would watch more like buffy than anything, with pauline being the central character as all these crazy events swirl around her. I don't think that The elder ever could have ended up with her because his perfection would have made her constantly aware of her own imperfection. Leviathan could never have ended up with her because he was too self absorbed and into his own schemes and plans to really pay her the kind of attention she would want, and he didn't really want her as anything beyond a friend with benefits anyhow. Garl should probably be the only one left standing with her at the time of her death, thats the only thing i would have changed. I think he was the central "positive" figure even of the four of us, because even though corona was all "up with people" and "bringin' the light" it was artificial because it was brought in fear of darkness not for lights sake. Garl was the only "authentically human" character of us all.
I'd watch that show.
I'm of two minds on this gaming experience. On the one hand you have a group of players all telling their stories, gamers are like snowflakes no two are alike, so sometimes i felt like we were all trying to tell different stories. On the otherhand i can't imagine a system that allows such radically different characters with such radically different ideals and struggles to interact so seemlessly together, which is one of it's great strengths.
I enjoyed the interactions between the characters when they were there, although our charactes interacted very little with one another. It was kind of interesting really the "pretty characters" worked together quite a bit and were the central thrust of the god-centric story arc, very classical i thought, while the ugly characters were the struggling characters who seemed to be more thematic. Even in make believe land the pretty people cluster together ;)
I wasn't as into the god-liness of the story as some of the other players. I've never really been into that as a player, sometimes i find gods a bit too plot devicey. I liked though the scenes that were the gods interacting with the players. I especially liked the scene where one of oceanus's other avatars in the form of a monstrous fish approached Leviathan, and I also like the scene where The Elder learned from Athena that his one true love would have to be sacrificed in order for him to save the day.
Pauline was an interesting thread weaved throughout there was an interested duel between Blake and the Elder for Pauline s affections, though blake wanted them more for his own ends than because he loved her. I like that in the end true love won out and none of blakes well crafted machinations could stop that from happening. Being the politico that he is he'll find a way to spin her death his way as well. I think the interesting thing regarding the "blake(leviathan) /elder" story line was how they are the opposite sides of the same coin. In some respects they were the angel and devil on paulines shoulder. But elder was fighting the good fight with valor and faith, whereas leviathan was fighting the good fight with manipulation and passion. I really like them as paralells.
Chris delivered some excellent performances as always, though i feel like with more episodes Coronas voice would have been more well defined. In the last game he became our "designated narrarator" totally randomly. Joes Gargoyle character really brought in the thread that tied everything together, that of humaness.
In the end i think if this were on tv it would watch more like buffy than anything, with pauline being the central character as all these crazy events swirl around her. I don't think that The elder ever could have ended up with her because his perfection would have made her constantly aware of her own imperfection. Leviathan could never have ended up with her because he was too self absorbed and into his own schemes and plans to really pay her the kind of attention she would want, and he didn't really want her as anything beyond a friend with benefits anyhow. Garl should probably be the only one left standing with her at the time of her death, thats the only thing i would have changed. I think he was the central "positive" figure even of the four of us, because even though corona was all "up with people" and "bringin' the light" it was artificial because it was brought in fear of darkness not for lights sake. Garl was the only "authentically human" character of us all.
I'd watch that show.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Limitations: I Like 'Em!
So last night, due to the unfortunate lack of Matt at our PTA game, we decided to play a one shot Fantasy dungeon crawl using the PTA system. The three of us played demi-human creatures on a world fast being abandoned by man. Not a such a bad thing, but the men were taking the sun with them, little by little they were draining our world of it's life giving energy and the end result was going to be our worlds destruction. Pretty gnarly i know.
We explored racism and classism, the concepts of nobless oblige, hedonism, evacuation based terror and chaos, and manipulation. From my point of view it was a truly fantastic game and it all came about entirely organically and quickly. I had a great deal of fun. It felt like Battlestar Galactica, but with satyrs.
When playing two seperate games within a single system it's almost impossible not to compare them. I am really enjoying the Super Hero PTA game, but this fantasy game really struck a chord with me. Upon thinking about it i realized that it's a matter of limitation.
PTA largely lacks the mechanical structure to enforce limitations. Also, it's really not the point of that system. It's less about knowing what each piece can do, than going with your gut and doing what is cool. Less like chess, more like poker. Super Heroes since their very inception have been as much about their limitations as their abilities, Superman has Kryptonite, Daredevil is blind, Iron Mans an alchoholic, Captain America is anachronistic, Reed Richards is socially awkward, etc. Certainly these are all things that PTA supports and perhaps could even thrive in, i think though the nature of roleplaying a superhero makes you want to do all the things they can do, and sometimes that leads to not realizing the potential of their limitations. Fantasy however is about no limitations, anything is possible, even probable. What limitations there are, seem less important. Thats why i think thematically the PTA system speaks more clearly to fantasy.
Also there is a question of shared language. A superhero is a different thing to almost everyone. The world of superheroism is incredibly diverse whereas the world of high fantasy has concepts almost every one can agree upon. Some people like Batman instead of Plastic Man, some people like John Constantine instead of Captain America. Some people like Impy the impossible man instead of James Bond. The super hero (some may say bond is, some may say he isn't and thats the point.) wears many different cowls. But the fantasy archetypes are closer and their achetype speaks to a type of play. If you want to play a ethernaut with a propensity for gear and steam based wizardry it's clear there is a steam punk element to your game. If you want to play a sylvan elf swordsman it's clear there is a high fantasy element to your game. For me the combination of heroes in our hero PTA game are just all speaking a different language. That's not to say it isn't cool, it's just to say it's a little less relateable. We have a human solar engine, a walking sculpture, the physical manifestation of all things marine, and a super combatant cum wise guy (pardon the pun). While all of them are very cool and it is interesting to see them together, sometimes, especially in a shared story telling experience, i feel as though the languages don't always sync up. One player speaks latin, the other speaks pig latin, and a third speaks latin american spanish. It sometimes results in my feeling like we're playing four different games.
I think the greatest strength that PTA has is it's shared storytelling methodology. I really love that idea. I think though, that when playing it there should be guidelines that we lay out with each other. like are we playing four color, black and white indy, or grayscale? Perhaps it's because this is the first experience for the four of us with this type of roleplaying but i feel like with the superhero world we never really managed to create a world we all shared, but in this fantasy setting i really feel at home, which is odd for me because i don't really like traditional fantasy roleplaying. I guess when it's in PTA i do.
We explored racism and classism, the concepts of nobless oblige, hedonism, evacuation based terror and chaos, and manipulation. From my point of view it was a truly fantastic game and it all came about entirely organically and quickly. I had a great deal of fun. It felt like Battlestar Galactica, but with satyrs.
When playing two seperate games within a single system it's almost impossible not to compare them. I am really enjoying the Super Hero PTA game, but this fantasy game really struck a chord with me. Upon thinking about it i realized that it's a matter of limitation.
PTA largely lacks the mechanical structure to enforce limitations. Also, it's really not the point of that system. It's less about knowing what each piece can do, than going with your gut and doing what is cool. Less like chess, more like poker. Super Heroes since their very inception have been as much about their limitations as their abilities, Superman has Kryptonite, Daredevil is blind, Iron Mans an alchoholic, Captain America is anachronistic, Reed Richards is socially awkward, etc. Certainly these are all things that PTA supports and perhaps could even thrive in, i think though the nature of roleplaying a superhero makes you want to do all the things they can do, and sometimes that leads to not realizing the potential of their limitations. Fantasy however is about no limitations, anything is possible, even probable. What limitations there are, seem less important. Thats why i think thematically the PTA system speaks more clearly to fantasy.
Also there is a question of shared language. A superhero is a different thing to almost everyone. The world of superheroism is incredibly diverse whereas the world of high fantasy has concepts almost every one can agree upon. Some people like Batman instead of Plastic Man, some people like John Constantine instead of Captain America. Some people like Impy the impossible man instead of James Bond. The super hero (some may say bond is, some may say he isn't and thats the point.) wears many different cowls. But the fantasy archetypes are closer and their achetype speaks to a type of play. If you want to play a ethernaut with a propensity for gear and steam based wizardry it's clear there is a steam punk element to your game. If you want to play a sylvan elf swordsman it's clear there is a high fantasy element to your game. For me the combination of heroes in our hero PTA game are just all speaking a different language. That's not to say it isn't cool, it's just to say it's a little less relateable. We have a human solar engine, a walking sculpture, the physical manifestation of all things marine, and a super combatant cum wise guy (pardon the pun). While all of them are very cool and it is interesting to see them together, sometimes, especially in a shared story telling experience, i feel as though the languages don't always sync up. One player speaks latin, the other speaks pig latin, and a third speaks latin american spanish. It sometimes results in my feeling like we're playing four different games.
I think the greatest strength that PTA has is it's shared storytelling methodology. I really love that idea. I think though, that when playing it there should be guidelines that we lay out with each other. like are we playing four color, black and white indy, or grayscale? Perhaps it's because this is the first experience for the four of us with this type of roleplaying but i feel like with the superhero world we never really managed to create a world we all shared, but in this fantasy setting i really feel at home, which is odd for me because i don't really like traditional fantasy roleplaying. I guess when it's in PTA i do.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
The End of Pirates (carribean variety not butt or video)
So my friend and I were discussing the last scene in Pirates of the Carribean 3, (spoiler ahead, like you couldn't tell, but i feel obligated to let you (whoever you are!) know) the very last scene after the credits where Will comes up out of the ocean at the bow of his ship to a waiting wife and child. She read this scene as sad, because will would live forever and his love and child would not. There is a great deal of merit to that interpretation. The music of that scene the layout of it, the whole "anne of green gables-ness" of it certainly lend itself to melancholy. There was certainly a sense of loss to that scene.
I however interpreted it differently. To me it meant that Will would never become the hideous mutation that Davy Jones was because on shore there would always be someone waiting for him. If not the delightful elisabeth turner nee swan then his child or grand children and so on and so forth. To me the point of showing a generational progression was to show that, yes it's sad they can only see him once every ten years, but they still get to see him once every ten years, thats better than nothing.
I don't think either of us are 100% right or wrong, so i set myself to thinking on it and I boiled it down to our interpretations equaling our experiences. More specifically our relationships with our fathers.
I have been without a father for most of my life. He died when i was very small and my mother remarried but only briefly. So I don't get to stand on a cliff side and await a magical vessel carrying my father from the depths to spend the day picnicking with me. I would give anything for one day every ten years to spend with my dad.
My friend has a living father and although the relationship has it's ups and downs from time to time (as all parental relationships do, i think) she wouldn't want to lose him for anything. I think for someone who has a lifetime with a parent the thought of only being able to see them once a decade must be heartbreaking, for me it's magical.
Keep in mind i'm only speculating on her feelings, but it's based on 12 years of knowing her really well. And it seems a logical conclusion to how two people would see one ending in expressly different lights. It's especially interesting when you consider that on most things she and I are of like mind and we are both more often than not very hopeful (if not frustrated) people.
At any rate the last few seconds of P3 are especially poignant and will tug at your heart strings. what direction they tug are entirely up to you and your relationship with daddy.
How freudian.
I however interpreted it differently. To me it meant that Will would never become the hideous mutation that Davy Jones was because on shore there would always be someone waiting for him. If not the delightful elisabeth turner nee swan then his child or grand children and so on and so forth. To me the point of showing a generational progression was to show that, yes it's sad they can only see him once every ten years, but they still get to see him once every ten years, thats better than nothing.
I don't think either of us are 100% right or wrong, so i set myself to thinking on it and I boiled it down to our interpretations equaling our experiences. More specifically our relationships with our fathers.
I have been without a father for most of my life. He died when i was very small and my mother remarried but only briefly. So I don't get to stand on a cliff side and await a magical vessel carrying my father from the depths to spend the day picnicking with me. I would give anything for one day every ten years to spend with my dad.
My friend has a living father and although the relationship has it's ups and downs from time to time (as all parental relationships do, i think) she wouldn't want to lose him for anything. I think for someone who has a lifetime with a parent the thought of only being able to see them once a decade must be heartbreaking, for me it's magical.
Keep in mind i'm only speculating on her feelings, but it's based on 12 years of knowing her really well. And it seems a logical conclusion to how two people would see one ending in expressly different lights. It's especially interesting when you consider that on most things she and I are of like mind and we are both more often than not very hopeful (if not frustrated) people.
At any rate the last few seconds of P3 are especially poignant and will tug at your heart strings. what direction they tug are entirely up to you and your relationship with daddy.
How freudian.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Let me just whip this out for ya-
hah ha! Blazing Saddles references never get old! Anyhow if you get a chance check out my link to litereality it's going to be where i keep my narrative fiction that i'm working on.
c u there
c u there
na na na na na na na na na na na na nah geek man!
So yesterday as i was preparing for work i took note of the items in my satchel it was a veritable geek utility belt, it contained as follows-
A star trek book (work of fiction)
A Linux Book
My Inhaler
Dice (with more than 6 sides)
My Mp3 Player which included a hefty amount of They Might Be Giants and also a couple of role playing characters saved as data.
*A granola bar that my wife had packed me.
*A change of clothes in case i got too sweaty walking to work.
My satchel itself (since i'm not a.) a bike messenger or b.) a european)
*these last two might not seem too nerdy but change "wife" to "mom" (but don't tell her i suggested such a thing) and change "walking to work" to "in gym class" and it's instant "hellooo mcfly!" time.
A star trek book (work of fiction)
A Linux Book
My Inhaler
Dice (with more than 6 sides)
My Mp3 Player which included a hefty amount of They Might Be Giants and also a couple of role playing characters saved as data.
*A granola bar that my wife had packed me.
*A change of clothes in case i got too sweaty walking to work.
My satchel itself (since i'm not a.) a bike messenger or b.) a european)
*these last two might not seem too nerdy but change "wife" to "mom" (but don't tell her i suggested such a thing) and change "walking to work" to "in gym class" and it's instant "hellooo mcfly!" time.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
You are excrement, now what?
There is one undeniable truth about Alexandro Jodoworsky's films El Topo and Holy Mountain, they are mind altering. I went in to a double feature of them, presented by exhumed films (way to rule guys!) at the International House in Philly, all cracked out on Coffee not remembering what i was truly in for. Within minutes i was wrapped up in Jodoworsky's fevered imagination watching a little naked boy shoot a wild west villain in the chest. At first I was astonished by the little boy's nakedness, but within moments the fact that said little boy shot someone at his fathers behest didn't seem at all strange.
It's that kind of suspension of disbelief that is so rare these days. It's like reading Dune for the first time, you're just swept away and the rules you've established for yourself are gone. I think of this as the Holy grail, or holy mountain, or excrement into gold, of story telling. It's so rare as to be almost alchemical.
As a role player, especially one who crafts games and designs systems, I'm constantly seeking it out and i'm not sure i've ever achieved it. I know of only one time where i was so into the game i was playing that it took me by surprise that my character was no longer acting on my wishes as the player, he was simply doing what made sense to him, he ended up summoning a demon and going insane, but it was as though i had no control over him. I couldn't tell you what about that game elevated my play to that level, There was no mood music as the books suggest, there was no candlelight or incense burning, it just happened, it was alchemical or hermetic, the stars aligned...i just don't know.
I think part of the equation, an element for the crucible, as it were, is a sort of abandonment of system. I don't just mean mechanically based on dice and such, i mean an overall system wherein the players know just as well what travails await them as the story teller. Jodoworsky achieves this in El Topo, he eliminates a system, "here is a western..." but from there god knows whats going to show up, a lesbian version of himself, a wierd cossack sharp shooter and his gypsy eagle mother, a pile of rabbits that burst into flame. If this were a V:TM game you would be able to read the books and say, "oh thats the flaming rabit pile, 3d10 damage, and it's fire so it's extra damagey". You'd know it was coming, or at least it could show up, and the magic the spirit of it is gone.
The act of watching an event changes it.... physics is everywhere!
I feel bad for my players in my upcoming western if they are unprepared. It will be impossible for me not to incorporate some of this surrealism into the game, to make it more of a spiritual journey than a dungeon crawl. At the same time i hope my forays into surreality will perhaps effect a loss of system and help suspend disbelief. We'll see.
Until then,
If nothing else, Conquer the holy mountain horizontally.
It's that kind of suspension of disbelief that is so rare these days. It's like reading Dune for the first time, you're just swept away and the rules you've established for yourself are gone. I think of this as the Holy grail, or holy mountain, or excrement into gold, of story telling. It's so rare as to be almost alchemical.
As a role player, especially one who crafts games and designs systems, I'm constantly seeking it out and i'm not sure i've ever achieved it. I know of only one time where i was so into the game i was playing that it took me by surprise that my character was no longer acting on my wishes as the player, he was simply doing what made sense to him, he ended up summoning a demon and going insane, but it was as though i had no control over him. I couldn't tell you what about that game elevated my play to that level, There was no mood music as the books suggest, there was no candlelight or incense burning, it just happened, it was alchemical or hermetic, the stars aligned...i just don't know.
I think part of the equation, an element for the crucible, as it were, is a sort of abandonment of system. I don't just mean mechanically based on dice and such, i mean an overall system wherein the players know just as well what travails await them as the story teller. Jodoworsky achieves this in El Topo, he eliminates a system, "here is a western..." but from there god knows whats going to show up, a lesbian version of himself, a wierd cossack sharp shooter and his gypsy eagle mother, a pile of rabbits that burst into flame. If this were a V:TM game you would be able to read the books and say, "oh thats the flaming rabit pile, 3d10 damage, and it's fire so it's extra damagey". You'd know it was coming, or at least it could show up, and the magic the spirit of it is gone.
The act of watching an event changes it.... physics is everywhere!
I feel bad for my players in my upcoming western if they are unprepared. It will be impossible for me not to incorporate some of this surrealism into the game, to make it more of a spiritual journey than a dungeon crawl. At the same time i hope my forays into surreality will perhaps effect a loss of system and help suspend disbelief. We'll see.
Until then,
If nothing else, Conquer the holy mountain horizontally.
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