Monday, November 5, 2012

Nightmare City Vs. Tombs Of The Blind Dead

Election Day tomorrow. I try, and fail, to steer clear of too much political meandering here in the blog, but let me just state this last thing before we put this whole sorted affair behind us, well until the next election cycle hits its fever pitch. Go vote. I don’t care who it’s for, what your cause du jour is, just vote. Be a part of the process, exercise your right, and make a difference. We can hash out who is insane or stupid or a socialist or a plutocrat another time, tomorrow is about having your voice counted, so take advantage of it.


Friday I had the luxury and pleasure of having lunch with The Bro-Lo El Cunado, Ant. It had been a long time since we’d spent any time together or hell even talked. It was awfully nice of him to call me and invite me out to lunch. Things have been sort of weird since his divorce. It was just sort of like we didn’t have a reason to hang out any more. And as anyone who reads this knows if I feel slighted, real or imagined, I have a history of just ‘checking out’. I won’t go into great detail besides hanging out was like we hadn’t missed a beat, the food was outstanding, and I hope that this means we do this more often. I missed Ant when he wasn’t around.

It’s always strange how on my blog I talk about all my guy friends who I ‘miss’, and yet I don’t say the same thing about Hides. So just to prove I’m not sexist, I miss you Heidi, and wish we go to hang out more often. There.

I finished my new copy of David Gross’ Queen Of Thorns (***** out of 5) early Sunday morning.
What is there to say other than he’s done it again? Mr. Gross draws you into the Pathfinder world on the heels of the masterful half-elf detective Count Varian Jeggare & his stalwart body guard and companion Radovan. I can’t ruin too much of it here because Cassandra is just starting the book now, but I do have to admit it seemed to have some parallels to Prince Of Wolves in the fact we get to Varian dig through the rubble of his shrouded past this time rather than Radovan. He finds that not all that he thought was truth, and yet some of it is beyond his wildest dreams. Radovan’s new relationship was interesting and never dull, but I have to admit after the emotional turmoil of his adventures in Ustav during Prince Of Wolves I thought we might see him mellow his appetites. In a way I’m glad he didn’t, I think it would have diluted who he is, and at the same time I loved the fact that this time it came back to have repercussions.  Not to mention there was enough continuity references that I feel like we might eventually get him to go back and decide on that marriage proposal after all. We get to the normally haughty Varian dealing with his elven heritage, as well as seeing how the ‘First People’ look unfavorably on all others. For the most part I was also very intrigued by the three elves, and the one gnome, that the pair traveled with throughout the tale, all were very fleshed out and interesting. Last but not least was the Queen Of Thorns herself. Again I’m going to keep my mouth shut spoiler wise here, but I really dug the character, and plan on using a variation of her in my own campaign. Overall I dug this book as much, and perhaps even more so than Prince Of Wolves. Now I just need to order and read the one tale of these two wayward adventurers that I’ve missed, Master Of Devils!

Friday night was a MASSIVE Horror Movie-A-Thon! Mighty Mike was in charge of the flicks and he gave unto us TWO foreign features; The Tombs Of The Blind Dead (3 Breast Mutilations out of 5)
So this one was a tad uneven as it started out VERY soft core porn, but ended up being a pretty brutal little survival horror yarn about Zombie Templars who LOVED to mutilate boobs. I really dug all the slow-mo shots of the zombies, and zombies on horses it added an otherworldly quality to them. I also really dug that the zombies couldn’t see you so if you were quiet you could have escaped. BUT guess what? No go ahead, I’ll wait. Ok, I’ve waited long enough, it was a Horror Movie so NO ONE COULD STAY QUIET! This flick also had a really messed up rape scene in a graveyard, which was almost as unpleasant as the man on man rape in The Warriors Of The Wasteland. These seem to just pop up in Italian and Spanish horror flicks for very little rhyme or reason and only to repulse. On the plus side it was an amazing night of joking and riffing as Dangerous Dan & Stealthy Steph were in FULL EFFECT! We also had not one but TWO Dave’s in the house, as Dark Dave became Original Recipe Dave, and ‘New Dave’ became Dave Extra Crispy. Dave Extra Crispy also brought his extremely witty and smart girl friend who was just busting out jokes left and right. It really helped to get us through the slow moments in this flick especially all that breast mutilations and neck biting. Our second flick was Nightmare City (4 Breast Mutilations out of 5).
This has to be one of the movies that Robert Rodriguez was ‘aping’ in his flick Planet Terror. While not a classic zombie movie it has all the tropes of the dead returning to life to attack and kill the living. This time though the dead run, use guns, do some breast mutilation, and look like someone took a dump on their faces. It had a similar vibe as Romero’s The Crazies with people just losing their shit all over the place. The thing is by this time in the night we were all running full bore talking wise. The main character’s moustache has us mesmerized, as did his somewhat ‘but her face’ wife. There is just so much insanity in a flick like this that it is ripe to be ripped. I have to admit though that while the ending should have been groan worthy, it instead caused us all to burst out in laughter. It was just a really strange, fast paced, easy to laugh at and with flick. Overall the night was a fantastic way to kick off the weekend. We met some new, insanely cool people, survived a late night Taco Bell excursion, and laughed a lot.

It was another week so we received another round of Shattered Star previews!
First up is the Boggard, or if you’re like me you still call it a Bullywug. This one is listed as a Common when it comes to rarity value. I dig it; in fact I dig it a lot. First off I think the color choices are masterful, they are muted, defined, blended perfectly. I’m not overly fond of the toothy grin, but it isn’t horrible. The staff is perfect for a Witch Doctor or Shaman in a tribe. The thing is as long as it’s not too big this thing could easily find itself in a group of Lizard folk as well. It’s just a really nice utility miniature that is for me a MUST BUY.
The other mini this week is the Pathfinder take on the Cat Folk. I don’t think I’ve ever played a game where Cat Folk were involved. I know I’ve never run a game with them. That might change. I like this miniature. The colors pop against the black outfit, the pose has some really nice flow in its movement, there is threatened action in the upper body, and from what I can see of this view I even dig the face. I have some other Cat Folk that I’ve culled from other games, and even some Shifters. I’m starting to think that perhaps I need to interject this race into a more serious role in either my current campaign or the next one. Either way based upon the above reasons this is a MUST BUY for me.

I think it’s about time to rap this shin dig up with some…

RANDOM CRAP!

- My left knee/hip/lower back is basically killing me right now. I can hardly suppress my desire to smash things in retaliation. It’s been over two months of this. I’ve got to find a way to deal with it and soon.
- D&D on Saturday, DREAD by Zack on Friday. My brain is fried already.
- Saturday my amazing wife and her insanely awesome parents built the shelves in the alcove of our basement office. This means no more Board Games on the floor. It also means that we then shelved up the closet and now all my comics are off the floor. Cassandra did a phenomenal job planning this out and it really turned out spectacularly. It’s strange to see that room that has been a cesspool for my Nerdery start to become organized.
- So tired, so very, VERY tired.
- I’m in one of those hungry for something and I can’t seem to figure out what modes right now. When you stack this on top of my already unpleasant demeanor it means I really have to watch my mouth or I’m liable to say something regrettable.
- Christmas shopping is about 2/3rds done. We’re on a roll this year.

And with that let me just reiterate, go out tomorrow and vote. Perhaps we’ll have a Podcast this week, perhaps not, as things have been super busy for my ‘other wife’ David. If not I’ll try and blog a bit more this week, especially if my trip to the voting booth is eventful.

“The devil and me had a falling out.
Violation of contract beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Wherever he go, whomever he meet.
He got to cross my house on the other side of the street.
And you know that's the truth. Now here's the part that the devil sings while he's
hanging his head in a hard rain:

Where I'm headed, I don't know.
Down this path, we all go.
Grace and luck, blood from stone.
Got nowhere to call my home.
What comes around goes around three-fold or more.
Now you can't get off of that killing floor.

I'm going back to Tennessee, back where I come from.
Gonna head back to Beale Street, Beale Street and Oblivion.

The devil and me, bad blood and beef.
An undisciplined child, a liar and a thief.
It's a low down shame, we were the best of friends.
But I suppose all good things got to come to an end.
What comes around goes around three-fold or more.
Now you can't get off of that killing floor.

I'm going back to Tennessee, back where I come from.
Gonna head back to Beale Street, Beale Street and Oblivion.
I'm going back to Tennessee, back where I come from.
Gonna head back to Beale Street, Beale Street and Oblivion.
Gotta get off of that killing floor.”



* = I mean c'mon if you read this drivel and don't know which way I'm 'rollin' then your not as smart as I gave you credit for...

10 comments:

  1. Missed you, too, chupacabra. We definitely should hang out more often. I will try to put in a bit more effort. Glad we had a chance to catch up over some delicious pho.

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    Replies
    1. Pho makes everything better. EVERYTHING. I still come to St. Cloud quiet often so perhaps we'll have to re-institute the 'every other trip' goes to Ant Rule as well.

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  2. Hey! Was it October last year I saw you? When J and I showed up a little bit too hung over from Zombie Pub Crawl to be ANY use during D&D? Yeap, it's been awhile! As you know I was busy this year baking another nerd baby. He turned out adorable, loud, demanding, snuggly, and just perfect.

    But I'm back to one of my hobbies, greeting cards! I'll be posting new cards to my Etsy shop every day this month! Including a Jabba the Hutt kitten and a crabby Spock kitty card. (Yes I'm plugging my shop on your blog). www.hellogaluchka.etsy.com

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    Replies
    1. Hides,
      Yeah it was about then, you HAVE been busy. I saw that I need to make sure I 'pimp' those out on my blog as often as possible as befits their awesomeness. Plug away Hides plug away!

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  3. Thanks for the kind words yet again. Considering some of your observations, I think you'll enjoy Master of Devils, although it's much less like the other two.

    As for the next one, however...

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    Replies
    1. Mr. Gross,
      I ordered it yesterday, I need that 'fix'. I'm really excited to see what my wife thinks of it. All of the references made to Master Of Devils has me on pins and needles to actually read the tale.
      Oh now your just being playfully cryptic! If you keep up writing all of these wonderfully fun books I'm going to have to devote a book shelf just to your tales.

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  4. Have you read all the free stories and (not-free) novellas over at paizo.com?

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    Replies
    1. I have, although I haven't read them all. In fact my pal David and I have been reworking the Perfumer's Apprentice into an audio play. I'm hoping we can get it done before the end of the year. The last serial I read, "Proper Villains", was really good.

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  5. Now I want to hear what Cassandra thought.

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    Replies
    1. Mr. Gross,
      She finished and I posted her thoughts on my newest blog. I hope the Holiday feast was good for you and yours.
      B.

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