My RSS feeds have asploded!

Something funny went on with my RSS feeds in the last 24 hours. Not all of them, just some. But they keep refreshing everything each time they add a story to a particular site. Gizmodo is the worst. There is one story that is now listed in my feed 22 times. I hope it is temporary.

Sketchfighter 4000 Alpha

I started playing the demo of Sketchfighter 4000 Alpha yesterday. Man, is that just a flashback into my own head! I loved drawing out dream video games on sketch paper when I was a kid. Pages and pages of this stuff, all the time making the noises just under my breath. My only complaint is the music because I didn't spent my childhood in an elevator.

Sorry, Window Users, Mac OS only. I do hope they make this into an Xbox Live Arcade game. It is perfect for it.

(I also got Sneak King from BK for $3.99. I'll have a review up soon.)

Oh, Blogger! You make me sad.

Blogger is having issues right now. All of the handy featues gone bye-bye. I was going to talk about goin to Liquid Courage and talk about catching the second half of Death By Roo Roo. Ah well. I didn't have that much to say anyway.

Four Eyed Monsters (yes, I am still pushing)

I know I pimped this on Monday, but deserves repeating: go see this film. It opens today at Cinema Village. I plan to go see again (although god know when I'll get the time). They even got a good minireview in the New York Times.

This is TRUE indie film. I know how obnoxious that sounds, but it is real. Not to diss the Fox Searlights of the world, but this is as about as indie as you get before you are watching a 12 year olds Star Wars lightsaber battle vid posted on YouTube. (Not that I am comparing Four Eyed Monsters with YouTube vids... or saying that some of those fan made lightsaber fights aren't farckin' awesome... I mean have you seen this one? (and I just found this Star Wars fanfilm while looking for the lightsaber one: Under A Tusken Sun... it's sweet (oh, hell... if I'm posting fanfilms, I would be remiss to not post the alpha-omega of Star Wars fans for the two of you who may have not seen it - Troops))).

Anywhozits, go see it.

More things I want

I want these Cold War Unicorns! Who wouldn't? Commie vs. Freedom.

Or how about The Avenging Unicorn Playset? You get to impale a mime. It has interchangable horns.

Horrified B-Movie Victims. Make some Oobleck and you can re-enact The Blob.

Shakespeare's Den has just replaced ThinkGeek as my favorite online store. Although I still want a USB Rocket Launcher.

Asteroid's Revenge

Here's a very simple flash game: Asteroid's Revenge. It's just like Asteroids... except now you are the big rock taking out those annoying ships. I mean, what did you ever do to them? Just floating around with your rock-homies, mindling your own business. And then the damn ship flys in and starts blowing you up! What up with that?!?

I love the twist. I just wish that when you got it, you broke up into smaller pieces and not just get smaller. Not sure how you would control the extra pieces. I would just be 'truer' to the original.

I hope there are more of these. Space Invaders from the invaders PoV. Playing a ghost from Pac-Man. I always wanted to play a game from the humans that you rescue in Stargate Defender.

(via Plasticbag via Boing Boing)

CageMatch upsets and the cool kids table

So after Mr. Little's standup last night (Yay, Matt Little! "Kool-Aid Vagina" killed me), we went to the CageMatch quarter finals a UCB. Two great teams, Mailer Daemon vs. Project Improviser. It was close. Project had a great show, Mailer had a good show. But a good show for Mailer is still great. Came down to two votes. Project won. I don't want to start any controversy, but I know of a couple of folks who had lost their voting slips.* I can't guarantee how they would have voted... but I think it would have been even closer.

I voted for Mailer, but it was the first CageMatch that I really had to think about it.

*I wrote "voting slips" without even thinking about the fact that there is a word for that... "ballots."

Afterwards, we ended over to the UCB home bar. While I adore my Sugar Cookie folks, they were all a touch drunker than I was. Actually I was stone sober. Who know those times when you are with folks and they all seem to be on another plane as you, and try as you might you just can't get on the same page as them? Sigh. I get that feeling a lot with my team. Well, not a lot and not when performing. Maybe it is the age thing. No, it is just me.

You see, I am shy. Very very shy. I look for approval, even from friends. I have spent most of my life feeling like I was on the edge of circles, never in the core. I realize this is me, but it has always affected me. Never in on the inside joke as it were. I am working hard to correct that.

So last night I decided to be brave. Okay, brave for me. I just walked up to the table with one of our coaches (our main coach, actually) and asked if I could join them. I expected to be cautiously allowed to sit and then I would sit there silently, finish my gin and tonic, and then just melt into the night.

But no! I actually felt accepted. There I was, at this table of incredibly funny and talented people. Me, just a lowly, not quite level 400 student. Me, shy as all get out. There were "bits" that I got involved in. There was talking shop. Yes, I spent some of it just listening quietly, trying to absorb. But I also felt like this was a world were I just fit. It probably happens to everyone.

The night made me feel 100% about the direct I am heading.

So, just a thanks to Ben for being just welcoming and a congratz for his career with the Mets. And to Nate S., I will try to make the blog less boring (just not this morning). And, Silvija, I didn't get a chance to praise you. I didn't mean to throw you off with the Nazi comment. I just watch you closely because you always make me laugh. (Not in a stalker way. Seriously, I don't know where you live.) And, Will H., thank you for answering my question about the metaphor initiation. That has been bugging me for a month and you knew EXACTLY what I was thinking about before I even said it. And just thanks to UCB for being UCB. Yes, you are a cult. But you Kool-Aid tastes so darn good.

And thanks to Sugar Cookie for getting me to come out. I really do adore you guys.

Oh, I also touched Horatio Sanz's butt.

Video Game Motivational Poster

Over in the NeoGAF foums they've been posting video game motivational posters. They're using one of those nifty generator tools. Good fun.

105,365

I'll be going to Julep to celebrate. I will NOT be drinking a lot. But I will have one mint julep and sip it like a southern gentleman.

Fünde Razor: Come Rock for Sick Kids

Barcade in Brooklyn is having a charity event for Child's Play on Wednesday, December 6th.

No cover! From the site:

• Play Guitar Hero on a giant screen!
• Drink some of New England's finest beers! In cups!
• Play classic stand-up arcade games by the bushel!
• Win one of our dozens of ROFL RAFL prizes, including a... Okay, we're still working on this year's prizes.

I have still never been to Barcade but will go on Wednesday. Meet me there. I have never played Guitar Hero but come out and go head-to-head with me! It's for the sick kids!

The Preacher coming to HBO

(Okay, people. Stop leading me to cool stuff today. I need to get to work, not write 300 words only to be torn way to post in the ol' blog.)

Garth Ennis and Steve Dillion's brilliant comic book Preacher is being developed for HBO.

If you are unfamiliar with Preacher, it is the tale of Jesse Custer, a down-and-out Texas preacher, who is possessed by Genesis, the bastard child that came from the coupling of a demon and an angel. Genesis had escaped from being imprisoned in Heaven. (You see, God abandoned Heaven.) The possession grants Custer with huge power, perhaps to rival God himself. Including the ability to command people to do whatever he says. A memorable seen early on has Custer telling a sheriff to "Go fuck yourself." And the sheriff does. He has to... um... cut it off first, but he does.

Custer goes to search for answers with the help of his old girlfriend Tulip and the heavy drinking Irish vampire Cassidy. Along the way they cross the Saint of All Killers, secret Papal organizations, scary Deliverence-esque family members, a Kurt Corbain-esque youth (if Kurt had been less talented and hadn't succeed in his shotgun suicide and only had horribly deformed his face... getting the nickname Arseface... and then become a happy optimistic fellow), and the totem spirit of John Wayne.

Imagine Buffy meets The Davinci Code meets Kerouac meets The Hills Have Eyes meets The Prophecy, written by Hunter S. Thompson, The Marx Brothers, and Thomas Aquinas, and directed by Tarantino.

Thank God (or whoever) that this is being sent to HBO.

Spray on Condom

(I really need to get back to the novel but...)

A German company is testing a spray on condom. Spray it on your unit, a few seconds later it solidifies into latex shell. The site is in German, so I have to rely on Google's translation:

"The advantages of the spray condom are obvious: it is easily and fast applicable, adapts to each Penisgrösse and form individually and offers apart from stretcher comfort, optimal protection with the sexual intercourse. Damage by transport or sun exposure belongs then exactly the same to the past like the question of the disposal: The natural rubber product decomposes and becomes humus."

Penisgrösse? Humus?

Apparently they are looking for volunteers for the testing phase right now. So if you live in Germany and you don't mind testing something on your willy, give them a call. Be sure to report back here (NDA be damned).

(via Gizmodo)

This is why the people don't trust the government OR the press

The Wonkette has an amazing report about a White House briefing earlier today. She has all of the detail, but I'll give a quick summary here.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow and Counselor to the President Dan Bartlett held a briefing in Latvia. The journos what to ask questions about leaked classified memo "by President Bush’s national security adviser expressed serious doubts about whether Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had the capacity to control the sectarian violence in Iraq and recommended that the United States take new steps to strengthen the Iraqi leader’s position." Snow and Bartlett wouldn't comment on that but they would give background off the record.

So in the middle of the the briefing you have the two of them saying basically, "That thing I just said, don't quote that. If you are confused about what was on the record and what wasn't, check the transcript."

Isn't the transcript on the record? Now, I realize that all of those comments will be purged from the official transcripts... but this was in a briefing full of journalist. So, if I have this straight, the White House is now not even waiting to rewrite history. They are rewriting this on the fly, live.

And I am sure this happens all the time. Sigh.
And let's look at out The Times reported on the briefing:

“The president has confidence in Prime Minister Maliki,” the White House press secretary, Tony Snow, told reporters, adding that the administration “is working with the prime minister to improve his capabilities in terms of dealing with the fundamental challenges in Iraq.”

Two senior administration officials, who insisted on anonymity in exchange for talking about a classified memo, said it was unclear whether Mr. Maliki has seen the memo, but suggested its contents would be no surprise to the Iraqi prime minister, who has been in regular consultation with Mr. Bush.

I'm going back to the novel. At least there I know what is fiction and what is not.

(via Wonkette)

NaNoWriMo - the hard slog, great rewards

Well, I crossed the big 100,000 word line early this morning.

crazy Man, it has been hard. Not hard as in hard to get out the words. I've had little problem actually writing this time. But it wasn't the same magical joy as last year. Maybe I am already a bit jaded. But I think it is actually that the structure was so less set this time... and became a muddled mess. My transitions are all over the place. At times I do crazy event slipping into event. At times I do huge time jumps. I'll have 5,000 words covering 5 minutes of scene, followed by 500 words in which the main character has three jobs, dates and breaks up with a woman and witness a murder.

It is going to be an editing nightmare. It will probably end up being an entire rewrite. That is a bit disheartening. But there is a lot of good stuff scattered through out all of the pages. And I have finally put all of the disparate files together.

I now have 36 or so hours to wrap it up. I am very close... and not. This book needs a long ass prologue. It wouldn't if it were better written. Ah, well. No work today, so it is all writing and then a movie.

Movies movies movies

Man, I've been just horrible about seeing movies this year. So so many slipped by me. I'm trying to not let that happen this holiday season.

In the last few days I've seen Borat and Casino Royale. Borat was good. A lot of hard laugh out loud moments, but not a lot of depth. I am of course very very curious about what was 'real' and what was 'staged.' I imagine that will never be revealed.

One nice thing I learned is that BAM now lists the time the movie starts, not when the trailers start. Thank you, BAM!

Casino Royale was excellent, especially for what it was. It walked a nice line of absolutey being a James Bond film and totally revamping the series. I love revisionist stuff and this did it just right. Daniel Craig is definitely in the Sean Connery realm (and my very well pass him). And while it does drag near the end (and in doing so telegraphs its final "twist"), it is certainly the best action movie I've seen in a long time.

But there are a lot of movies out there or opening soon I still want to see: Babel, The Last King of Scotland, The Fountain, For Your Consideration, Tideland, The Good German, The Good Shepard, Happy Feet, Apocolypto (yes, yes, Mel is an anti-semetic freak... I still want to see the movie), Arthur and The Invisibles, Dreamgirls, Curse of the Golden Flower, Children of Men. No way I am going to see them all. Sigh.

Broken Angel Update

Christopher Wood posted this on my old post on the subject. I respost is comment here so that it is on the front page.

Update 11/28/06
The Wood family is very thankful for the support we have received in our attempt to rescue Broken Angel. However the building is far from saved and time is running out. Broken Angel is a legally built architectural sculpture, which my father would love to transform into a home for the arts. Broken Angel is viewed by thousands of people who come to see it every year. If this quirky and original structure disappears, Quincy and Downing streets will again become a forgotten corner of Brooklyn. My name is Christopher Wood; I am the son of the creators of Broken Angel. I have lived my entire life in Brooklyn. I have grown up and continue to be enmeshed in a world of art. I am a stone carver and photographer. I have restored many of New York’s cherished landmarks including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cloisters, Grace Church, the Tweed Court house, and currently the main branch of the New York City Public Library. I call on Brooklyn to support and help us restore Broken Angel. Please email or write your local politicians to show your support and help us block the demolition of Broken Angel. If you are a legal professional, we desperately need help fighting the Department of Buildings in court. Additionally those who are willing and able can purchase paintings by my father or my photographs of Broken Angel at Artez’n at 444 Atlantic Ave. Works of art for sale can also be obtained online at http://www.artezn.com/. I guarantee that a work of art bought this holiday season will retain its value better than a Play Station 3. Please help us and show the developers who want to turn Brooklyn into another skyline of giant buildings that we will not go gently into the shadows of greed and over development. I can be contacted at chriswood718@yahoo.com
Photos of Broken Angel
My restoration work
Broken Angel in the press:
Daily News
Seth Kushner
Brooklyn Papers
Gowanus Lounge
New York Times

If you can help, please.

Beautiful Harvey Comic covers

I remember being young young and being drawn to the art of Harvey Comics more than I was drawn to say Disney or Archies or superheroes. Does that make me... um... less manly? Whatever. The art is still gorgeous. Dan Goodsell and A Sampler of Things has post a handful of them from the '60s.

(via Boing Boing)

Matt Little LIVE!

Matt Little is one of the amazingly talented improvisers I've had the honor of playing with. But is first love is standup. I've never seen him do it, but he promises me that he is hilarious. And since I would trust him with my first born, I trust his word. (The first born is just a practice child anyway. The second one is the one that counts.)

Anywhozits, Mr. Little and two of his friends are doing good sized sets at Julep (9 Ave. A) on Thursday, November 30th. 8pm. Free and $2 drinks available. Go. Laugh loudly. I can almost guarantee that he will not flip out and shout out racial slurs. Almost.

Shrimp on Treadmill

Look, I'm not even going to try to justify why I posted this. I just find it very relaxing to watch.

By the Power of Greyskull, don't touch my special place!

C.O.B.R.A. presents the 2007 Idiotarod

As it is late in the evening, I won't go into this in much detail right now. Just that the Idiotarod... the greatest sporting event to grace this planet... is coming in just two months. TWO MONTHS! January 27. Mark it on your calendar. Mark it well. Start "obtaining" those carts. Start building that team. Get ready.

Go to the site. Talk on the forums. Sign my butt. Teach me to read. (A cookie to the first person you names that movie.)

Because this is the Idiotarod C.O.B.R.A. style. The world will never be the same again.

(I apologize for all of the labels... The Idiotarod crosses so many boundaries.)

What I want

• To improve in my improv skillz
• To gather good people around me
• A new camera
• More art in my life and home
• More clothes since I can't shop for myself
• The Democrats not to drop the ball
• Every boardgame ever. I'll settle for rounding out the standards. I still don't have Clue or Stratego. But I'd love rare, weird ones to. And old vintage one.
• DVDs of not my favorite movies but of my friends favorite movies
• A Lego electric train set
• A literary agent
• A robot monkey butler

Colbert just use the Wii to make Mii's of himself and Nancy Palosi. Then he had them box. Yet another reason the Wii will win.

• A Wii
  

Four Eyed Monsters opening in NYC

I've talked about the film Four Eyed Monsters before. You've you've seen it, great! Go see it again. If you haven't, you owe yourself a treat. If you don't trust me, go to their website and check it out. Watch the podcast (start at episode 1). You'll be hooked in no time.

After a year plus of screening here and there, they are getting a real run at Cinema Village starting Friday, December 1st. Go go go. Really. Not just because it is a great movie, but because they are trying to change how films are distributed.

Lethem on Dick

(wow, that title is horrible!)

Considering that this blog takes its name from a Philip K. Dick novel, I can't let one pass on.

Author Jonathan Lethem has piece in The Virgina Quarterly Review that is an imagining of P. K. Dick's life shortly after publication of his first novel. Here's a taste of the piece, Phil in the Marketplace.

The one clerk stoops and picks up the book. “Hey, wait one cotton-picking minute. It’s got your name on it.”

“Yeah, I had that published, I got that published.” As if at his command, as if he’d flung the manuscript to New York with the same cavalier abandon as he’d flung the finished product on the music shop’s floor: Hey you! Publish this.

“Flame Disc, by Philip K. Dick. Geez! What’s it about?”

What’s it about? It’s about 235 pages, Ted. It’s about I wrote six novels about guys like you and me nobody wants to read, Ted. It’s about what it feels like to dwell in one place and yet feel you should dwell in another. It’s about there are no mere happy clerks. It’s about the bright paper of its cover and the bright paper of my shelves of complete runs of Astounding and Amazing, the way my dreams got turned into something shiny and put on a shelf, and now I’m one of them, one of those science fiction writers. It’s about my sister, only you can’t meet her because she’s dead.

“Just some pulp crap. I wrote it in two weeks.”

You want a glimpse into my world? Go read it.

(via Boing Boing)

A Brief History of Pop Music with just four chords

Benny Davis plays a song that could be any pop music song in the world. What sells it for me is his friend ignoring him and playing video games in the background.

(via Lukira)

Wii Have A Problem

First, why am I so fascinated by the Wii? I really don't know. I don't own one. I probably won't get one for awhile. But I guess it comes down to the fact that it is different and that it is the "next big hope" to get gaming out of the gutter. See, because I love video games. I really do. And I would love if it fully crossed into mainstream so that games were developed for a wider market. But it is a chicken and egg type deal: the masses won't play because games are made for twitch happy boys and developers won't make games for the masses because only twitch happy boys buy games.

The Wii takes a big step in bridging that gap.

Anywhozits, here's a blog devoted to stories of injuries and property damage cause by the Wiimote.

(via Destructoid)

U.S. Embassy in Argentina to Barbara and Jenna: "Get the hell out!"

I really don't feel that politicians' children are fair game. I mean, it wasn't their choice to be in the spot light. But when you are the daughters to the President of the United States of America, I kind of think that you should be discrete.

That's why I love talking about Barb & Jen Bush. Those rapscallions!

Now a lot of the stories my just be wild Argentine tabloid lies. I don't know if they really are running down the halls of their hotel naked. And maybe there is a reason the Secret Service seems to just not care about them any more. (An ABC producer was able to walk up to Barbara and talk to her while she was checking her email in the hotel lobby.)

Either way, it does appear the U.S. Embassy is sick and tired of the new stories. And it's good to know that they aren't there scouting for housing for their dad for when they war crimes start.

(via Wonkette)

SantaCon is coming

Just a reminder for those who don't want to miss one of the best holiday traditions in the history of man: SantaCon is Saturday, December 16th. While that seems a long time in the future, it isn't. Go buy that Santa suit or dig it out from the back of the closet. Start drink water NOW. You'll need to be well hydrated. Start learning those carols. Get your naughty and nice list sorted out. Santa only comes once a year... but when he comes, he brings a posse. Nay, a mob!

Del Close revealed?

Mmmm. Not sure what to make of this one. Pope Flores is going to dish the dirt of the mysterious stories surrounding Del Close during the early '80s. To be honest, I don't even know what the rumors are, so I don't know what to think of his tantalizing tease. I shall follow it to see what comes about.

Link.

More Why the Wii Will Win Vids

Girls like the Wii.

Dads like the Wii.