17 December 2009: Holiday rush and animation

Although I’ve recently posted my roundups of genre entertainment, I had intended to write “Best of 2009” blog posts before year’s end. As usual, however, I’ve fallen behind with holiday correspondence, so I may have to combine them with my looks at the year ahead.

In the past few weeks, I’ve been busy with work, attending local industry events, tackling budgeting, and trying to get ahead with editing assignments. I’ve also been dealing with conflicts in local and remote social/gaming groups. Janice and I easily completed our Christmas shopping and decorating, and we look forward to seeing her folks in Upstate New York next week.

We’ve also been watching various animated specials on television, including old favorites such as A Charlie Brown Christmas and A Claymation Christmas Celebration. Although some recent computer-animated shows such as Shrek the Halls and Flight Before Christmas were mediocre, I was favorably impressed with a few newer specials, like the whimsical Yes, Virginia, the clever Prep and Landing, and the quirky Olive, the Other Reindeer.

The Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa successfully recaptured some of the humane spirit of the late, great Jim Henson. I have yet to catch Gotta Catch Santa Claus or How the Toys Saved Christmas, but even with ABC Family’s help, there are more specials to watch than time to see them.

Speaking of animation, last weekend, I screened The Princess and the Frog, Disney’s first hand-drawn feature in several years. I liked the New Orleans setting and gender reversals, even as many other reviewers have focused on the fact that this is Disney’s first movie featuring an African-American heroine.

Although the plot, soundtrack, and characters weren’t particularly original (female lead, singing animals, romantic plot), I’m glad that John Lassiter recognizes the value of preserving multiple types of animation in addition to the currently popular CGI. (On a related note, I may try to catch James Cameron’s derivative but apparently spectacular Avatar.)

For example, stop-motion had a bit of a resurgence this year, with the well-received Coraline, 9, and The Fantastic Mr. Fox. I’d give the all-ages Princess and the Frog three out of five stars, 8/10, or a “B” grade, and I hope it’s successful in reviving interest in 2-D
animation in the U.S.

7 December 2009: Potter, cake, and catching up

Friends, I hope you had a good weekend. Janice and I took Friday, 4 December 2009, off from work. We slept in, did some housecleaning, and walked to the Fuji Japanese steakhouse for lunch (and Spasso Café for gelato dessert). I also touched base with longtime friends including Damon F.P. and David I.S. by telephone. Among other things, we talked of news of murders at our alma mater and Dave’s university.

On Saturday, Janice drove her parents and me into town for the Harry Potter exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science. The movie props and costumes were impressively detailed, and there were many young and enthusiastic fans of J.K. Rowling’s fantasy novels.

We went to Bertucci’s for lunch, followed by a chocolate cake for Janice’s birthday. Janice’s parents later returned to Upstate New York as snow began to fall. In addition to doing most of our Christmas shopping online, Janice and I ordered a new laptop from Dell. It will be in addition to our aging desktop computer and my work laptop, and we plan to use it for watching Blu-ray DVDs, travel, and faster performance.

I caught up on recorded genre television, including the half-season finales of metahuman melodrama Heroes, alien invasion remake V, and new sleuth show White Collar, as well as
the midseason premiere of syndicated fantasy Legend of the Seeker and the bittersweet series finale of BBC America’s Robin Hood. I need to get started with holiday cards and decorating.

Last night’s Pathfinder: “Holy Steel” teleconferencing game was canceled because of scheduling conflicts among some of the remote role-players, but the D&D4e “Vanished Lands: the Faith-Based Initiative” fantasy game should continue tonight, despite the
death of one Player Character in the Underdark last week and the absence of a few members.

Damon and Dexter V.H.‘s planned visit for this coming weekend is up in the air because of family issues, but the next few weekends should be busy as winter and the holidays approach. Upcoming movies include Disney’s traditionally animated The Princess and the Frog, James Cameron’s sci-fi actioner Avatar, Guy Ritchie and Robert Downey Jr.’s take on Sherlock Holmes, and Terry Gilliam and the late Heath Ledger’s Imaginarium of
Doctor Parnassus.

18 November 2009: Convention and concert report

I’m sorry that I haven’t blogged much in the past week or so — I’ve been busy with the usual round of work (for which I went to a trade show), gaming, genre TV, and seasonal events. I’ve also raked numerous bags of autumn leaves. On Saturday, 7 November 2009, Janice and I went into Boston for the Christmas Craft Festival at the World Trade Center. We didn’t buy lots of arts and crafts, just foodstuffs.

We got turned around a few times while trying to get to the Compleat Strategist, but we managed to eventually visit that game store and Pandemonium Books and Games in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We enjoyed a late lunch at Mr. Bartley’s Burger Cottage, one of the best places for hamburgers in the area, and walked around the book shops of Harvard Square, which we try to get to quarterly.

On Saturday, Nov. 14, we returned downtown for the New England Fan Experience (NEFX) and Star Wars in Concert. Janice and I stayed overnight at the Courtyard by Marriott Tremont, which hosted the genre entertainment convention. The ballrooms at that venue were adequate in size, but the hallways and elevators were a bit crowded.

We caught the tail end of the session featuring Corin Nemec, star of Parker Lewis Can’t Lose and Stargate SG1, as well as the career retrospective of character James Hong, who has worked in movies for more than 50 years! Hong was funny, doing impressions and mentioning his numerous roles in films such as Blade Runner, Big Trouble in Little China, Mulan, and Kung Fu Panda.

Janice and I had lunch at the Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery before taking the
train to meet former co-worker Ken G. and his girlfriend Kahmmie at the Boston
Garden. Star Wars in Concert was excellent, featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a large screen showing clips from all six movies, and even lasers and pyrotechnics.

We had difficulty choosing whether to focus on the talented and precise musicians
or on the well-organized vignettes introduced by C3P0 himself, Anthony Daniels.
On the way into the arena, we gazed at some props and costumes from the two
trilogies, as well as people in costume. I was pleased to see many children (some waving toy lightsabers) in the audience and to see that George Lucas’ space opera lives on.

We then returned to the hotel, grabbing dinner at the International Burger Bar before attending more convention sessions. Unfortunately, because of the concert’s timing, we missed the guest of honor, Star Trek and Mission Impossible‘s Leonard Nimoy. Still, we did get to see Gareth David-Lloyd from Torchwood because his room was on our floor! In addition to the usual aging male fans of comic books and old television shows, there were younger, often female anime and horror enthusiasts, multiple generations of Star Trek fans, and people in outlandish costumes.

I was impressed by the number and variety of panels at the NEFX. That evening, Janice and I sat in on sessions about technology (and “technobabble“) in Star Trek, steampunk media (about which I hope to blog more soon), and archaeology in science fiction. The steampunk sessions were led by comic book author Everett Soares and the fun troupe “the Penny Dreadfuls.”

On Sunday, Nov. 15, we went to the knowledgeable Paul Gavins’ panel on “suitmation” vs. computer-generated imagery in kaiju (giant monster) movies. We also picked up a few elements of steampunk garb at the dealers’ room. I’m looking forward to visiting the Super MegaFest and the “Harry Potter” exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science in the coming weeks!

Monday, 19 October 2009: Fall and fantasy

On Saturday, 17 October 2009, Janice and I had considered going to a local pancake
breakfast or up to Salem, Massachusetts, for the pre-Halloween festivities. However, our plans were derailed when Janice noticed our water heater leaking, almost four years to the
day after the basement of our previous apartment flooded. Fortunately, only a few cardboard boxes were damaged this time, and our oil provider sent someone to repair the leak fairly quickly.

Instead of going down to Dedham and Norwood, Janice and I drove out to Framingham,
Mass., for a late lunch at Olive Garden. We then met Beruk A. and Thomas K.Y. to screen Where the Wild Things Are. The loose adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic book had convincing visual effects and good acting, but the movie probably had too much emotional depth for most children and wasn’t really marketed as being for adults. Of the previews we saw, only Roald Dahl’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox intrigued me.

Yesterday’s early snowfall enabled me to clean up my basement and catch up on recorded

genre television. Among other things, I watched The Quest for King Arthur, a good History Channel International documentary on one of my favorite sets of legends.

As I write up notes for last night’s Pathfinder: “Holy Steel” teleconferencing game and prepare for tonight’s D&D4e “Vanished Lands: the Faith-Based Initiative” role-playing session, it’s interesting to note that sword-and-sorcery fantasy isn’t well-represented on TV right now.

Despite cast changes and melodramatic rather than swashbuckling storylines, BBC
America’s Robin Hood has been good in its third (and presumably final) series. The addition of Friar Tuck, more focus on Robin’s political role as a Saxon rebel, and slightly fewer anachronisms have made this the lead historical fantasy on the air right now.

Fans of Hercules: the Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess can look
forward to Strarz’s sword-and-sandals Spartacus, coming later this autumn, as well as the return of the syndicated Legend of the Seeker, which Buffy/Angel alumna Charisma Carpenter will be joining.

Despite the latest wave of adolescent vampire romances, I’m still hoping that the relatively
cheap computer backdrops used in Sanctuary (which just returned) can enable high-quality literary adaptations or original heroic fantasy to be brought to TV. I’ll try to report more on my second takes of the current TV season later this week.

28 August 2009: Game updates

On Sunday, 23 August 2009, the “Holy Steel” teleconferencing team resumed, now using the Pathfinder core book, which revises the Dungeons & Dragons Edition 3.5/D20 System Reference Document. So far, despite this rule set’s complexity and the tome’s heft, I like Paizo’s iteration of the world’s most popular fantasy role-playing game more than Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition (D&D4e)/Game System License.

Although Dexter V.H. has been too busy with family commitments to rejoin our virtual sessions as Drow Ranger “Faelonia,” Byron V.O., Beruk A., and Paul J. have
continued their exploration of the pyramid of Unas as Paladin “Ibrahim,” Rogue “Milos,” and Wizard “Derek,” respectively. Their adventuring party has fought monsters and is searching for the Book of Thoth, which it believes cultists of Set are also after.

I’ve had to cancel two weeks’ worth of D&D4e “Vanished Lands: the Faith-Based Initiative” face-to-face (F2F) games because of work. We’ll probably meet again around Labor Day. After about 50 consecutive sessions, I don’t think missing a few Monday nights will hurt the momentum of that party, which is investigating smugglers in the
Hifalendorin human capital of Hesolin. Overall, “Holy Steel” has had more interesting investigations by Player Characters (P.C.s), and the “F.B.I.” has had more action scenes. A good group has a balance of the two.

I’m still looking forward to taking a break after the “F.B.I.” winds down, although that has taken longer than I expected. On the one hand, several people prefer Pathfinder or other systems to D&D4e, and the Player Characters (P.C.s) are approaching Tenth Level, which used to be “name level” — the midrange in power that usually marks the end of my campaigns.

On the other hand, the current Boston-area P.C.s have been gaining in experience and knowledge, and some gamers are understandably interested in maximizing their abilities. I still hope to give other Game Masters a shot and to run shorter-term steampunk, superhero, and/or space opera scenarios, most likely using a D20 variant, although I’ve seen mostly favorable reviews for the rules-light and pulp-flavored Savage Worlds.

I don’t expect my F2F game to return to the “Vanished Lands” setting, probably using Pathfinder, until spring of 2010. Since I’ve been building that fictional world since 1982, I’d like to take some time to tweak it to properly challenge and entertain
another party, which won’t be easy because most of the current group is now
familiar with it.

I ended my subscription for Lord of the Rings Online because college chums David I.S. and Dexter haven’t had the time to play regularly. The “Dimensional Corps Online” supergroup for the City of Heroes multiplayer online game is still going strong, and Dex invited me to try Champions Online (now separated from the Hero System 6th Ed. license). I have, however, enjoyed Wii Sports Resort. Batman: Arkham Asylum also looks cool, but it isn’t available for the Wii.

Coming soon: Superheroes and work!