Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Well!



I guess that answered my questions below. I saw Jimmy Fallon out on the field during the celebration, but I couldn't tell who his dramatic-smooch partner was. Was that Drew Barrymore in an attempt to shoot some quickie verite footage?



My respect for the Cardinals has approached Cub/ChiSox lows, and not for game-play reasons: because they inflicted musical blight Scott Stapp on us for God Bless America. Suddenly Steven Tyler seems like a good idea.





Thursday, October 21, 2004

movies and the Red Sox

Recent baseball goings-on have me wondering about two high-profile, yet wholly unnecessary, movie projects in the works.



First up: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. The title girl loved Gordon while he was a Sock, but he's since moved around a bit, and now (for the time being) wears the pinstripes. Will the film be set during his late-90s run with the Sox, or does he now hate him? Or is he beloved again because he was so instrumental in the Greatest Choke in Sports History?



Finally, Fever Pitch. Nick Hornby's book was a brilliant piece of sports journalism. The Colin Firth adaptation was a rather by-the-numbers romantic comedy. Now it's getting Americanized, and the long-suffering Arsenal fan will become a long-suffering Red Sox fan. Thing is in real life, Arsenal's sufffering finally ended. If the Sox lose the World Series, will the Farrellys end the film with a fake victory? Or does the focus change to the drama against the Yankees?



...and most importantly, will Cam Neely get a cameo?

Friday, October 15, 2004

Making the rounds here, here, and here. For my purposes, "Friends list" becomes the "people I know" blogroll to the left:



Name a CD you own that you doubt anyone else on your friends list does.

The Suicide Commandos, The Commandos Commit Suicide Dance Concert The Suicide Commandos were the first, and one of the best, Twin Cities punk bands. They cut one brilliant album on a shortlived Mercury imprint in 1977, then broke up in 1979, leaving this final concert for posterity.



Name a book you own that you doubt anyone else on your friends list does.

Alan Mendelsohn, The Boy From Mars by Daniel Pinkwater. I really enjoyed this book in grade school, spent about 20 years looking for a copy, and then of course discovered it was nowhere near as good as I remembered. It's recently back in print in a Pinkwater anthology, but I'm betting no one has the standalone book.



Name a movie you own on DVD/VHS/whatever that no one else on your friends list does.

Storefront Hitchcock, the little-seen Robyn Hitchcock concert film.



Name a place that you have visited that no one else on your friends list has.

I'm pretty poorly-traveled, but I think no one on the list ever went to the original Bird House bar in Bird Creek, Alaska. I got there in 1993, and it burned down three years later, though a replica has opened in Anchorage proper.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

shhh....

This is that time of year when three biggish things converge to shut me up online: The Chicago Film Festival, getting ready for the start of curling season, and TRASH regional question crunchtime.



Of course, since I'm giving you even less than usual nothing of worth I have no right to bitch about other people's blogs, but when has that ever stopped me? Craig's home on the web is in that pray-for-February season where unless you care about football, there's nothing for you. At least the Tuesday caption contest has some broader appeal. Meanwhile Deeablo has become literally unreadable, friends-locking her LJ. I have an irrational thing against the LJ community, so I'll have to get her raving about the cute boys of the WB in person.



Oh, okay, here's something nonpersonal to bitch about: the ongoing rightwinging of my spam. This week: Christian Debt services. What is the Christian method of eliminating debt, exactly? And why are so many Christians in debt? Is it because George W. Bush and the GOP have abdicated the title of "party of fiscal responsibility?" One of the many interesting things gleaned from this book was the high instance of fraud in Utah, because swindlers tell people to pray on financial decisions.

Monday, October 4, 2004

So now that I have wheels again, I ended the gaming drought both days this weekend. I got out to Mt. Prospect Saturday. Of note was Betrayal at House on the Hill, the new Avalon Hill game, and only the second truly "new" game published under the AH imprint since Hasbro took it over. In this game you and other players are laying tiles to explore a haunted house, quasi-cooperatively (because you don't have an objective yet). At some point, an event will be triggered which will turn one player against the rest. In this game, my character was an 8-year-old girl. I encountered a madman who killed me, at which point I assumed the madman character, controlling zombies who tried to kill the rest of the characters. My undead minions made short work of them to win, but my madman got killed along the way. Surprisingly neither side's victory condition had anything to do with his survival.



Pretty decent game, all in all. It reminded me of the Buffy game in its 1 vs. multiple-players system. I don't know if it's $40 worth of decent, though, but I don't know that anything's $40 worth of decent with the big ticket items as of late.



This being the campaign season, on Sunday I played Road to the White House with a co-worker and some of his gaming buddies. Everyone plays a politician loosely based on real people and/or archetypes, and spends 6 months on the campaign trail trying to win electoral votes. My candidate was a grizzled-yet-respected Senator from Idaho who started off with virtually no base or cash, but has high charisma and a surrogate campaigner who sticks around for 4/5 of the game. My strong issues were Housing, Education and Abortion (pro-life), the latter of which came up three times in the game, which got me two more long-lasting surrogates and locks in Alabama and Utah. Because of this constant support and some Education dollars coming in, the other players were convinced I was in the lead, but I ended up going the way of Howard Dean. I ended up getting 72 electoral votes (including NY) to survive the first ballot, and was second-or third-place in many states, but they weren't the states that went back in play after the first player was eliminated, so I was next to go. I don't remember who the winning canddiate was, but he was in a final slugfest with the Ted Turner doppelganger who got 50% discounts on dirty tricks. Despite this game coming in at seven hours (six players, four rookies including myself), everyone seemed to agree that it was worth playing again soon, and that experience would shave at least two hours off the time.

Oh, happy first anniversary to Mark and Sarah. Where do people go for anniversaries on the Nawth Shawh if shellfish allergies are involved? Hilltop, maybe?



One of the vivid memories of a year ago today was being back in New England for BoSox playoff drama. Weren't we 3 or 4 games into the postseason by this time last year? Today we're on the eve of Game 1s. Did it start unusually late this season?

Friday, October 1, 2004

"I point the finger in their face and say 'You let this happen.'"

I'm really enjoying Chillinois. Whether or not you agree with pursuing the Maya Keyes story, this comment in particular (which has nothing to do with it) is spot on:



Four Flordia hurricanes, Mt. St. Helens is stirring, an earthquake has just jolted California. Can you imagine what the right wing would be saying about now if Al Gore was finishing his first term?