Bullitt Vs. Teeth

* = I feel you Spidey, I feel you...












I’m still friggin’ fighting the COLD THAT WOULD NOT DIE! My question to the Universe would be; “How can so much mucus come out of one person?” You’d seriously think that 80% of my body weight was made up of the brightly colored, viscous fluid. My nose is raw from blowing the HELL out of it. The good news, if there is any, is that this new Theraflu thing I’m taking is making me feel human again. I just want this over with.

The only other good part of spending the last four days doing nothing is I watched some stuff, so you don’t have to, and finished two books!

- Return To Oz (*** out of 5) –
I know I had seen this movie before, many moons ago, but I had nonetheless DVRed it. Cassandra and I sat down and watched it together. What’s to say? It doesn’t hold up all that well, especially not in comparison to the Wizard Of Oz (Infinte *’s out of 5), a movie I both love and fear. This movie sort of has a vibe of lost opportunity, I’d say along the lines of the Tim Burton Alice In Wonderland. It’s amazing to realize that with a lot of these fantasy flicks they either work exceptionally well and are visually amazing or sort of teeter on the edge of absolute disaster. This one teeters, but to it’s credit never falls. On an ironic note, I had Cassandra watch the new trailer for John Carter and she thinks it’s going to teeter right off the edge. I’m a tad more optimistic.






- Repulsion (***** out of 5) –
I had this on DVR since most ‘Must See’ movie lists have this 1965 Roman Polanski on it. It’s a fantastic movie; it’s also incredibly slow. I don’t mean that as an insult either, it’s just got one of the slowest builds I’ve seen in a flick, but it pays off BIG TIME. This is a suspense/psychological/horror flick. It attacks you in strange ways with the way it’s shot, with the lack of dialog, and even the lack of music in a lot of spots. There is a TON of empty audio space in this movie. It’s off putting it lends to the descent into madness that we are as viewers witnessing. The theme of loss of reality, the underlying tones of potential lesbianism, and the weird ‘rape’ scenes really just added to an overall feeling of instability and an erosion of reality. Fascinating movie.






- Sword Woman & Other Historical Adventures (***** out of 5) –
What’s to say, it’s Robert E. Howard being Robert E. Howard. It did give me a lot more appreciation for Howard as a historical scholar and a writer beyond his Fantasy tales. Now I just need to get my El Borak stuff back from Ant.






- Bat-Manga (Infinite *’s out of 5) –

This is a compilation of a lot of the 1960’s Japanese Batman strip from Shonen King and it is everything you could ever want and more. This is the bare bones of Batman & Robin re-worked through a Japanese lens. So you get some classic Batman villainy, Clayface, but you also get some strange amalgamations of bizarreness like Karmak, Dr. Faceless, Go-Go The Magician (a re-worked Weather Wizard), & Lord Death Man. There is familiarity in all these villains, sort of pieces of other DC villains in them, but they are all cut from a different, stranger, and frankly more fun clothe. I can’t wait for the second volume of this to come to print.

So I’ve finally gotten the handle of Photoshop, thank you Ant, and with the help of Ninjadorg, K.Y. Wong, & GeckoTH I’m refining the monsters, villains, and henchmen as I get them done. Here’s a sample of my work thus far;

Here’s the thread if anyone wants to take a gander;

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/618827/team-ants-monsters-villains-other-assorted-goodne/page/1

The reality is without the help of the above three individuals, & Ant of course, this wouldn’t be possible. It’s my hope to hammer out a couple of Artscow decks with some theme, like The Temple Of Elemental Evil, and some random monsters. This is to go along with the random ‘story’ engine I want to use to beef up the D&D Adventure System’s narrative element to go with what I feel is a fantastic play format. Who knows maybe I’ll even get some folks together to play, & play test, this stuff ASAP.

Another week, MORE Pathfinder Pre-paints!








We, as DM’s, always need more wolves. I have a crap ton right now and it’s still not enough. I like the dynamic pose of the leap, and while the color is a little ‘to brown and nothing else’ for me, it’s not bad. The Mummy looks ‘bleh’ from these photos. There is nothing that gives it any personality, which is slightly surprising since Wizkids has knocked out two Mummy minis with Horrorclix that were both very good. I have high hopes that this is just due to a bad picture rather than a bad mini. Last but not least is the much-maligned Chimera. It looks better with wings, & slightly less cartoony now that it’s not a digital render, but the picture is SO small it’s really hard to tell just how refined it looks. Not to mention an awful lot will depend on the paint job. I guess I’m just lucky that I already have a really good DDM Chimera pre-paint. I’ll definitely be all over Auggie’s Miniatures to pick and choose singles I want out of this set, but I can honestly say that it’s not a ‘must buy’ set of miniatures.

How ‘bout some…

RANDOM CRAP!

- I’m turning 36 this week I am officially old.
- ‘Tis the season to spoil the one’s we love, and today I’m giving my lovely wife one of her Christmas presents early. I have high hopes that it blows her friggin’ mind!
- Hopefully I get some chili this week.
- I just checked the Board Game Geek dot com thread for Ant & I’s monster creation and it appears that I have a TON of revisions starring me in the face tonight. As irritating as that might sound, I’m actually quiet excited to do things right and get some beasts ‘in the can’ so they can be put on the Artscow.
- I hate Wells Fargo.
- I spilled cough medicine on my pants today. Luckily it’s on my leg & not my crotch, otherwise it would look like I peed myself, and I just don’t need that additional hassle at work.
- This is the slowest day EVER!
- I’m four songs into the newest Fairly Secret Army disc, and the first two tracks, “That’s The Ticket” & “Breaking The 3rd Wall”, are really catchy. I think it’s the fact that they have lyrics. I dig the music on the other two tracks, but the lack of lyrics always makes them feel as if I’m looking at half completed masterpieces. So stop being a big music tease Dave and give me the goods!

As much as I thought I might have other stuff to blab about it turns out I don’t…

“I hear the music, daylight disc
Three men in black said, "Don't report this"
"Ascension," and that's all they said
Sickness now, the hour's dread

All praise
He's found the awful truth, Balthazar
He's found the saucer news

I'm in fairy rings and tower beds
"Don't report this," three men said
Books by the blameless and by the dead
King in yellow, queen in red
All praise

He's found the awful truth, Balthazar
He's found the saucer news

Dead leaves always give up motion
I no longer feel the motion
Where prophecy fails, the falling motion
"Don't report this, agents of fortune"

All praise
He's found the awful truth, Balthazar
He's found the saucer news”


* = This is the type of crap I imagine on an hourly basis.