Monopoly the Movie

The fact that they are making this movie and that Ridley Scott is directig is nothig new.

Here's a recent quote on the project from producer/CEO of Hasbro Brian Goldner: 

“He’s [Scott] built these great big worlds of imagination... Combine that with Pamela Pettler who’s writing this great script about real people kind of playing a real-life game of ‘Monopoly,’ not the board game, although they’re icons of the game. And then you really get the idea why this story could make sense right now.”

And from Scott:

“I have to direct it... We’re in progress right now. We’re having it written. We have identified a pretty good story and it is fundamentally a movie, not a game, probably describing in a way the characters in the film, the passion of the game, and how the game came about.”

I still have no idea what this movie is about or why it is being made.

(via MTV)

Yes, I am six years old

This game just makes me laugh.
Puzzel Farter!

(via Kotaku)

Class

My improv class was fun last night. Yet another struggle, but fun. We worked on monoscenes last night. Think of it as a continous scene in one unchanging location in real time. I think I really got it by the end. I'm still not being funny... but I am locking very well onto the idea of a having a solid point of view. When I do that, I stop thinking of all the rest of it and just commit to the character. Now the problem may be that I'm just not that funny. Maybe that will come. But I'm much happier with me playing "true" and not funny than "funny" and not true.

In the rest of the world I am having diffculty being classy. I pulled it off for a week and then I just stopped. I'm just not classy, I guess. I don't know. I feel like I stumbled into a bunch of webs and I tried to stand there and look cool. "What? I have spiderwebs in my hair? No biggie. I'm cooool." But then I suddenly yelled, "My god! Get this crap off me! Get it off!" And I waved my arms in the air and ran around in circles for a few days.

Well, now the webs are off for the most part. I'm standing there, surrounded by broken webs, feeling a bit sheepish. Back to square one, I suppose.

The Battle of Brooklyn Reeactment Post-it Tag

I have had a dream of reenacting the Battle of Brooklyn in Prosepct Park for a while now. Originally it was conceived of as a water balloon fight, but I have always been worried about innocent bystanders getting hit and then the clean up of a few hundred burst water balloons. Also it is hard to decide when you have actually been fatally hit. So I have been stymied for almost two years.

But tonight, just as I was trying to go to sleep, it hit me: Post-It Tag. Each person starts with a certain amount of Post-Its on them. Players grab Post-Its off each other, sticking them to them selves. If you lose all of your Post-Its, you're dead. The Post-It also allows some other tricky things. See, I want to do the Reeactment RIGHT, and that means not restricting it to the standard Revolutionaries and Red Coats. I want to include the French... the Ninjas... the Robots... the Pirates... the Zombies... But how can a Zombie makes someone else into a Zombie? Easy! Slap a green Post-It on someone's forehead!


Some times the brillence of my brain amazes me.

Expect it this spring.

Save a Piñata

Okay, you will have to have a touch of the nerd to understand why this is exra funny now.One funny thing is that it was made in 2003, so is not supposed to have any relationship to Viva Piñata. It is by Turnpike Films. They have other funny stuff you will probably be familiar with.

(via Kotaku)

Fantasy Congress

First, it is sad that when the words "fantasy" and "Congress" are put together, it just sounds dirty?

Anyway, I am not a football fan. Heck, most sports beyond roller derby bores me to tears. So the idea of fantasy football has never interested me. But I can get behind Fantasy Congress. Just like fanatasy sports, you draft 16 Memembers of Congress (MCs). They get points based on pushing legistration. I can't say I fully understand the point system (see the above chart), but can't say I undersatnd Congress in general.
(via GamePolitics)

The Bard's Tale MMORPG

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from night to night,
To log on to a server with out lag;
And all our Hot Pockets have lighted noobs
The way to digital death. Out, out, brief sim!
Life's but a walking pixel; a poor graphic,
That blips and blink his hour upon the screen,
And then is heard no more: it is a quest
Told by an AI, full of beeps and fury,
Signifying blue screen.

This Weekend

Things I'm doing this weekend:

FRIDAY, JUNE 16th @ 6:16pm
BUBBLE BATTLE! NYC
Astor Place
Meet at the Cube
Please bring bubble toys, bubble solution & AA Batteries

FRIDAY NIGHT
I don't know. I was invited to a bar, but it is a bunch of folks I don't know at all.

SATURDAY, JUNE 17th @ 2:00pm
TRAILER PARK LOUNGE
23rd & 8th
Hangin' with my improv peeps to get a little loose for the next item on the menu.

SATURDAY, JUNE 17th @ 4:00pm
UCB Theater
26th & 8th
My Level One Class Graduation Performance!
Come one, come all. Just 5 bucks. I give no promises, except that I like all of my improv peeps and we are all sincere.

SATURDAY NIGHT
Don't know yet. I'm going to play it by ear.

SUNDAY
Mellow day. House stuff.

SUNDAY EVE
I get to toss the ol' plastic polyhedrals again! Sweet! It's been so so long. We'll see how it goes. I hope I like the group and they like me and it will last a long time. Yes, it's a bity like a first date.

My graduation performance for my Level One Improv class.

Project Improviser: The Last Update

Well, I didn't make the cut, but that was no surprise seeing the talent that was there. I was definitely out of my league. But it was good fun. It should be an entertaining show. The first episode should be up sometime between the 12th and 16th (they are aiming for the 12th). There may be some of me in there (although there were 22 people trying out so I probably won't get a lot of air time.

Anyway, I thought my scenes went well, but our games were a little lost. We weren't really going anywhere.

It was all good, but I do have that post audition exhaustion right now.

Project Improvider Update

So tomorrow night is the big first day. I will be thrown in with 7 other (more experieced) improvisers and we shall perform a harold (a long form of improv). I have no idea how many of these groups there will be. I am over my pettiness about not understanding the process and am over any nervousness, although I am sure that wil kick back in tomorrow around 3pm.

Check the Project Improviser site next week. I still have no idea when the site wil actually go live.

Another note: Their is NO Project Improviser performance this Wednesday.

Project Improviser Update - Humph.

Well, this is just great. I now feel like a total ass... and a little duped. I just have to learn to keep my frackin' mouth shut.

Turns out I was not selected as one of 8 people. I was selected as one of who knows how many people who get to audition on Sunday. From THAT they will select 8 people who will go onto the rest of the contest.

Doh! Now it makes a lot more sense why I was picked with such little experienece... what the hell to they care? They can cut me on Sunday! So my minor cool news has become just a whatever news that might turn into minor cool news after Sunday.

Not a big deal EXCEPT that I told a bunch of folks so that they could plan ahead and show up next Wednesday. Including my entire improv class. I told them today and won't see them until next Thursday. So some of them may very well show up on Wednesday and go "Where the hell is he? What a liar!"

I must just keep my mouth shut.

So now the deal is: I may or may not be in Project Improvisor of Wednesday.

Humph.

Project Improviser!

PROJECT IMPROVISER is a new internet video show that is a reality competition for long form improv. A group of eight performers will be chosen and each week they will work on a different form, which they will perform at School Night. They will then get evaluated by a panel of judges and each week one person will be eliminated. And along the way, they will have various other fun challenges that they will participate in.

I just found out I will one of the eight. I have a feeling I will be the greenhorn, the diamond in the rough, the darkhorse, the outsider, the unknown. I am very excited and just a tad scared.

I don't know when the webisodes will be going up (but our first taping is Sunday the 4th). The first live performances/contests will be Wednesdays at 11pm at The Upright Citizens Brigade starting June 7th.

Here is the site: PROJECT IMPROVISER. (Yes, nothing is there yet.)

Time Wasters

It's been awhile, I know.

I have some thoughts that I hope to get down later tonight or tomorrow. Until then go here: Samorost and then Samorost 2.

Confessions

Somethings I feel like I need to get off my chest:

- I like vacuuming but I don’t like lugging the vacuum cleaner around. I also have a vacuum cleaner that is worth more than my computer.

- I have an unhealthy relationship with cheese and Coke w/ Lime and Hot Pockets.

- If someone got me reservations at Mesa or Per Se tomorrow night, I wouldn't blink about spending $500.

- I want to eat the offal meal at The French Laundry.

- I can and do use the word “mythos” in reference the superhero genre. With a straight face.

- I like television and I love my Tivo.

- I try to limit what shows I watch regularly but the list gets large quickly. Currently? Lost, Gilmore Girls, Project Runway, Battlestar Galactica, Rollergirls, The Office, 24, The Boondocks and Survivor. I will add The Amazing Race and The Venture Brothers when they start up again.

- I still believe that, in general, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the best show that has ever been on television.

- I watch the Food Channel more than I cook.

- I applied to be on Survivor and got an interview. My audition tape was quite good, as was my interview. But there are only so many over 30 skinny white boy slots.

- I almost applied for the next cycle of Survivor. But the application was due on Feb. 3rd and I was going to film my tape at the Idiotarod and things got to hectic to thing about lugging around a camera.

- I cheated in a relationship once. And the sex was horrible. It was a drunkin' thing. Afterwards (right after the deed), I casually, because I could think of nothing else to say, mentioned that I had had never used a ribbed condom before. She thought I said "ripped condom" and panicked a bit until I cleared it up.

- I have a desire to do a podcast. Radio drama thing. I wrote a mini-script last night. But my computer is chugging a bit these days. But I may upgrade in March and get the new iLife and see what happens.

- The morning after I cheated, I had to go to a set strike with both women. Later that night (after ending it with both of them), I got drunk with ANOTHER gal that I dated the next semester.

- I chew paper.

- I don't go a day without coming up with an idea for a story. Not a day. Today's story was about a sock that goes to group therapy.

- My rewriting the novel is a huge pain. Not because it's boring and hard (which is true) but because I get distracted. Every time I cut out some element, I feel the need to think about how I can rework it into a new story.

- I really miss playing cards at 2 in the morning at the Hard Times Cafe in Minneapolis.

- More to come.