Heart of Autumn 2010

Naturally, I hadn't intended to let this project sit dormant for so long, but life remains busy and it's been all too easy to let the weeks slip past. Not that I'm complaining - all things considered, things have been pretty good lately. Hopefully, though, I'll also be able to find the time and energy to post a little more often.

Superchunk played at the Wonder Ballroom a few weeks ago, a venue I hadn't been to since maybe 2002, back when it was still Disjecta. I've never paid the slightest attention to Superchunk - I think I'd always been repelled by having them described to me as "college rock," which only barely ranks above "emo" as one of my least-favorite musical descriptors. After hearing their newest record, Majesty Shredding, though, I really started to regret having ignored them for so long. It's an excellent album, and I've been listening to it almost every day since it came out. That said, perhaps it's for the best that I'm only hearing them now. One of the things that I like a lot about Majesty Shredding is that it's a passionate, high-energy record made by four people in their forties, and the joy of it is tempered (and strengthened) by age and experience. I don't know if I would feel the same way about it if it had been made by a younger band.

Anyway, enough of that. I wish that Superchunk had been able to play an all-ages show - and I missed their in-store performance at Jackpot earlier in the day - but I'm still glad that I went. They were just as enthusiastic and exhilarating in person, and it was clear how excited everyone was to see them. I'll happily see them play again... though I realize that probably won't be for another ten years.

Here's some footage that someone shot of "Slack Motherfucker," their last song of the night:

Autumn Equinox & Birthday of Bilbo and Frodo, 2010

As is our tradition, we celebrated the beginning of autumn and the birthday of Bilbo and Frodo with a little feast. Sadly, my planning left a bit to be desired, and our meal was both a little rushed and very late. Still, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and I very much appreciate their joining us during one of my favorite holidays.

I have to admit, I'm more than ready to welcome the change of season. Fall is the time of year to which I feel most suited, and I 'm looking forward to many cold days spent indoors with the company of friends, family, and a good book.

GPNW 2010: The Believers

I mentioned in my quick rundown of Go Play NW 2010 that I was able to play Chris Bennett's "role-playing poem" The Believers, which I'd been curious about for quite a while. I had a terrific experience with it, and really like the idea of using similar short-form exercises to warm up before a longer play session. Something else that I wanted to share, though, was an artifact I ended up with when we were finished. In the 'Contact' phase of the game, the players are given the following instruction:

"While the first player is describing their belief, the other players should each be taking notes, writing down single words or phrases they hear that are evocative to them. For example, you might write down 'spinning lights' or 'scared out of my wits.'"

I'm finally getting around to putting away some of the stuff I brought back from Seattle, and amongst the various character sheets, fliers, and other ephemera in my bag of games, I discovered that I still had my Believers notes:

Susan

still alive, thirteen
lipstick smeared across my face
I shouldn't have let Mark...
went out to the ravine
I jumped
I felt so free

Kingston

Weekly World News
you drink three beers
when it ended, I didn't know what to do
who's going to hire a man with Batboy on his resume?
I was driving
my car was upside down
there's no way you can drive your entire car up into a tree

Darin

reoccurring dreams
people over my bed
one time I woke up
the person in my dream
the foot of my bed
it was calming
the dreams went away
just last week they started coming back

4th July 2010: "They should never touch the ground"

Here's some footage of one of my favorite Fugazi songs, "Facet Squared," at a 1993 show in Nashville. "We draw lines and stand behind them. That's why flags are such ugly things." Happy birthday, America.

Interruption IV

I just finished Free Play by Stephen Nachmanovitch this morning:

"I remember a feeling that caught me as I hung up the telephone once, a kind of sadness. I realized that my inner knowing had told me to say something, and I did not pay attention. I thought, with regret, back to other times when I had heard that voice and ignored it. The simplest yet most elusive lesson in life is learning to listen to that guiding voice."

Summer Solstice 2010 & Thoughts on Go Play NW 2010

Happy solstice! I ended my spring on a high note, with my first Go Play NW, an event I've been looking forward to for months. My friends who've attended in previous years have been universally enthusiastic about their experiences, and I'm happy to say that I had an equally good time. I met a lot of new people, all of whom were friendly and welcoming, I had a very good time in every session I played, and it was a pleasure to be up in Seattle for the first time in almost a year. I had only two regrets: one, that I couldn't muster a little more energy for the games that I played on Sunday, and two, that I didn't have the time to eat at Plum Bistro or any of the other wonderful-looking places I'd been planning to visit. Oh, well - there's always next year.

Anyway, I'm hoping to post a little more about the weekend over the next few days, but for now, a quick rundown of everything I was able to play:

Two games of Fiasco, using the "Boomtown" and "Tales From Suburbia" playsets.

My first game of Lacuna, with almost no prior knowledge of the game, which now seems like the ideal way to come to it.

A nice long session of Apocalypse World.

A pickup game of Lady Blackbird, easily my favorite of the three times I've played it.

A handful of short-form games, including The Believers, which I've been wanting to play for quite a while, and really enjoyed.

Several pickup games of Dominion.

All in all, it was a really terrific weekend. Many thanks to all the friendly folks I met, everyone that I played with, and especially to the Hugo House and all the GPNW organizers for putting together such an amazing event.

Birthday

Today I am thirty years old.

Play: Gamestorm 2010

I spent the last weekend in March across the river for Gamestorm 12. This was the third time that I've attended, and also the most rewarding. In previous years, it was easy to feel a little adrift - I didn't know anyone else at the con or register ahead of time, and as a result, I spent a lot of time looking for pickup boardgames or sitting in on panels. That was a lot of fun when I came upon something I was interested in, of course, but it also translated into a great deal of downtime and aimlessness. This year, I made much more of an effort to plan out my weekend and register for games ahead of time, and I also knew a few more folks in attendance, which made a big difference.

I wasn't sure what time I'd be getting in on Friday night, so I'd planned on playing things by ear. After saying hello to a few friends and playing a couple games of Roll Through the Ages, I joined a group in the boardgames area for the rest of the evening, where I was able to learn Amun-Re and Notre Dame. Both were titles I'd been curious about for a while, so I was happy to finally try them out.

Unfortunately, Saturday morning's game of Tulip Society was canceled, and so I found myself wandering around for a while before that evening's Burning Empires session, the "Fires Over Omac" scenario. I was playing with a couple of folks I'd played with before, and I had a lot of fun, but I can see how it really requires multiple sessions to make a fair assessment of BE. So much of what I like about the Burning Wheel system in general and Burning Empires in particular - things like the scene economy, maneuvers, and Firefight mechanics - are things that benefit from the kind of investment that it would be hard to create in a one-shot or convention game. I'd anticipated that might be the case, though, and really enjoyed seeing that stuff in action, even if it might not have been under the best of circumstances.

After we finished, Michael P. drafted Hans and I into trying out Fuck Youth, from the Norwegian Style anthology. I own the book, but I've never had a chance to play anything from it. It was definitely a change of gears after our Burning Empires game; the three of us sat on the floor in a quiet corner of the room, which seemed like an appropriate setting for what turned out to be a quiet game. I don't say that disparagingly - both mechanically and tonally, Fuck Youth is almost ethereal, drawing mostly on the players' memories and cues provided by the scene cards. After a long day, it felt really good to dive into an unfettered storytelling experience. I'm really happy that I was able to play this, and next year, I'd like to end every night with with something similar.

On Sunday morning, I joined an Apocalypse World game that Vincent Baker was running, which was a treat. It was just a taste - I think we only played a little over two hours, including character generation - but I had a wonderful time. Joel, who also played, posted a bit about his experience on his weblog. AW had kind of flown under my radar, despite how much playtesters posting online seem to be enjoying it. I mean, I was sure I would like it, but now that I've actually played, I'm really excited about it. A group of us have been talking about getting a regular game together, which I'd be thrilled about, but we haven't played a second session yet, so things are still at the fingers-crossed stage.

After a couple games of Lost Cities, Michael R. and I finished out our weekend with an AXE COP-themed Danger Patrol hack that Brendan had put together. You can see this AP report for all the details, but suffice to say that we were laughing pretty much nonstop from beginning to end. As Brendan points out, the pleasure of playing a fusion of DP and Axe Cop is in how quickly the players find themselves surrendering to unfettered, uninhibited imaginative play, without even realizing it's happening. It was terrific.

All in all, it was a great weekend. There were plenty of games that I was sorry to have missed - among them Heart of Ashes, Spectre of the Beast, "Where Are Your Keys?" and especially the convention finale Sea Dracula game, which you can see below - but I came home exhausted and happy, just as I'd hoped I would.

Music: Hive Dwellers, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists 21.03.10

Almost all of the shows at the Doug Fir are over-21 affairs, and as a result I'd never been there. An exception was apparently made for Ted Leo's second show of the weekend, however, an all-ages Sunday matinee. It was funny, though - as soon as I went downstairs, I couldn't shake a pretty intense feeling of deja vu. It took me a few minutes to puzzle it out, but then I realized that I had been there before, in a way. Back in 1999, I saw Tragedy play in that same room, but the building at the time was a Chinese restaurant, and the hotel was also under different ownership. It's funny how things change.

Anyway, The Pharmacists were great. This was probably the best I've ever seen them; the James Canty/Chris Wilson/Marty Violence lineup is easily my favorite, and everyone seemed to really be enjoying themselves. I think I heard everything that I'd been hoping to hear - especially "Bottled Up in Cork," "Me and Mia," and "Under the Hedge" - plus a pretty entertaining karaoke version of "Since U Been Gone," a song that I'm afraid I'm not really familiar with. They played for a little over an hour, which I think is just about the perfect time. I'd see them again in a second, so hopefully they'll return sometime soon.

Here's a clip of "The Mighty Sparrow," from the new record:

Music: Paul & Storm, Molly Lewis, Jonathan Coulton 27.02.10

Cara and Joanna and I went down to the Aladdin last weekend to see Jonathan Coulton play with Molly Lewis and Paul & Storm. It's a curious thing, seeing music in a setting like that: a large crowd, advance tickets, long sets, sitting down for the entire show. I'm certainly not used to that kind of experience, but I really enjoyed myself. Everyone that played seemed to be in good spirits, and the interplay between the folks onstage and the folks in the crowd - and the lighting technician - really added a lot to the whole night. Part of me thinks it's kind of a shame that Coulton's music is known almost exclusively for its humorous quality; there's no denying that a great deal of its appeal comes from being funny, but I think it's the sadness underlying songs like "Future Soon" and "Shop Vac" that really sets them apart. Anyway, the whole show has actually been uploaded, so you can see it for yourself; here's "Betty and Me," Coulton's opening song:

Music: Leeni, Spamtron, Trash80 03.02.2010

A few nights ago, I went down to Ground Kontrol to see Leeni, Spamtron, and Trash80. It was a new experience for me; I don't really know the first thing about chipmusic, but I stumbled across some of Trash80's material a while ago, and I think it's pretty terrific. Apparently, the folks that are behind this show, 2 Player Productions, are going to be doing more events on a regular basis. As much as I enjoyed the music, though, I don't know how often I'll be attending - the shows at Ground Kontrol seem to be strictly over-21 affairs, which is a fucking drag. Anyway, this is Trash80's "Missing You," the song that first caught my attention:

Film 2009

First of all, a few caveats. Since Elias has been born, I haven't seen nearly as many movies as I used to - at one point, I think I was easily seeing something in the theater at least once a week, but now I frequently miss films entirely, or only see them on video years after the fact. Despite having spent the last month trying to catch up on 2009 films, I can still think of quite a few that I still haven't seen, including The Hurt Locker, A Serious Man, Thirst, Inglorious Basterds, Drag Me to Hell, Observe and Report, Rudo y Cursi, Public Enemies, Cold Souls, and The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. Also, I don't doubt that there's a film or two out there that's flown completely under my radar, and I'll only realize how great it is years from now. Such is life. That said, here's my top ten for 2009, with three-line reviews:

10. The Road
While it proved to be something of a disappointment, it's hard for me to imagine a better way to film the book. After seeing The Proposition, I was pretty optimistic about John Hillcoat as a director, and I stand by that - he has a gift for the unrelentingly sorrowful and grim.

09. Duplicity
I'm a sucker for Tony Gilroy's contemporary take on political dramas like The Candidate, and Duplicity has a delicious black humor, much of it stemming from the vendetta between Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson's cosmetics magnates.

08. Paranormal Activity
While it's not for everyone - more than a few folks I know didn't care for it at all - I thought Paranormal Activity was terrifying. It succeeds mostly on the strength of ratcheting up its tension so deliberately, and by leaving so much to the imagination.

07. Coraline
This is the film that sold me on the new 3D technology. Seeing Laika's handcrafted work presented so vividly was a real treat, and the film itself was a shadowy and frightening and wondrous fairy tale.

06. Up in the Air
I hated Thank You for Smoking and liked Juno in spite of how proud of itself it clearly was, so I wasn't sure what I'd think of Up in the Air. I shouldn't have worried; it's easily Jason Reitman's best - and warmest - film, with terrific performances from everyone involved.

05. District 9
The first third of District 9 is easily the strongest part of the film, but don't let that dissuade you from watching it to the end. It's an overtly allegorical summer action movie, and strikingly, the first film I've ever seen that's clearly been influenced by the vocabulary of electronic games.

04. Fantastic Mr. Fox
While the animation in Fantastic Mr. Fox isn't as polished as that in Coraline, that somehow lends itself well to the film as a whole, with Wes Anderson's characteristic melancholy humor and familial strife. And three Beach Boys songs!

03. Ponyo
While I like all of Miyazaki's work, I have a particular soft spot for his films about younger children, like My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service. Ponyo is in the same vein, with a warmth and amiability that's a complete delight.

02. Moon
I still think Moon is best seen with as few preconceptions or expectations as possible, so let me just quote from my original post about it: "it's a rough-hewn, evocative , unassuming, atmospheric piece of science fiction, and I recommend it unconditionally."

01. Up
What to say? Along with Toy Story 2 and Ratatouille, one of Pixar's most human films. I didn't realize it beforehand, but the script was by Tom McCarthy, who can do no wrong in my book. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense.

Play 2009

Board Games

I recorded 202 plays in 2009, a significant increase over the 108 I had in 2008. A lot of that was due to a conscious effort I'm making to play more often, but the bulk of my play lately has also been with very short games, many taking less than half an hour to finish. Finally, Elias is old enough now that we've started to play together this year, and as you might imagine, it's a development that I'm absolutely delighted with. Anyway, here are my five and dimes for the year:

Bananagrams (35 plays)
Far and away the game that ended up with the most plays, but that comes as little surprise: most of these have only run about five minutes, and it's an accessible game with pretty broad appeal - I like being able to play pretty much anywhere, and with friends and family members that might not care even for lighter designer games. Also, I logged all of these plays since the beginning of November, when Joanna and Katrina introduced it to me on a family vacation. If Bananagrams proves to have some longevity, I could be discussing a substantially higher playcount at this time next year!

Once Upon a Time (21 plays)
Like I mentioned above, Elias and I have started playing games together, and this is the one that's seen the most table time so far. Personally, I think of it as more of a story game than a conventional board or card game, but I love it. The fairy tale theme and collaborative storytelling mechanics, of course, are both things that I'm quite fond of, and the fact that Elias enjoys playing so much tickles me to no end.

Dominion (15 plays)
I know that I don't have nearly as many plays as some folks, and I doubt there's anything I could say about Dominion that hasn't already been said, but man, what a terrific game. I received my copy at the end of 2008, and while I've enjoyed it from the beginning, seeing the various cards in action has only deepened my appreciation for it. Probably my favorite game right now - I'm more or less always down for playing.

Coloretto (14 plays)
Another game that plays in a matter of minutes, and that I've been able to successfully introduce to a variety of folks. We've played it a lot as a filler, or while waiting for other folks to show up. As a result of liking this so much, I picked up a copy of Zooloretto, but it hasn't hit the table yet.

Pandemic (14 plays)
The folks that I play with are pretty fond of cooperative games - when I first started getting into designer games, we were playing Shadows Over Camelot pretty much every time we got together, and right now I'm in a group that's getting together for monthly games of Battlestar Galactica. Pandemic, though, is probably my favorite cooperative design at the moment - it's tight enough that even when we lose, it feels like just one more turn would have been enough to win, and it plays quickly enough that I'm always willing to get in two or three games if other people are up for it.

Adventures in Oz (6 plays)
Cara and I have read perhaps half a dozen of L. Frank Baum's Oz books to Elias, so he was pretty excited when we found a copy of this game. I'm afraid I don't have much to say about it; it's a pretty simple roll-and-move kids game, but Elias really enjoyed it, and I was happy to play.

The Kids of Catan (5 plays)
A birthday gift for Elias, though I'm afraid he hasn't taken to it as much I'd hoped. Then again, it's not a terribly interactive game, either - everything is pretty much predetermined by die rolls, so there isn't much in the way of interesting decision-making. It is gorgeous, though.

Memoir '44 (5 plays)
I actually don't remember playing very much Memoir this year, but apparently I did. Anyway, it's an enjoyable diversion, but I've never quite been able to get into it as much as some people. Perhaps that would change if I played with a bit more frequency...

Mystery Garden (5 plays)
Another game that I've played exclusively with Elias, Mystery Garden is more or less a dressed-up version of Twenty Questions, but I have a soft spot for Ravensburger games, having played them a bit when I was a kid.

Finally, a few other games of note: The monthly Battlestar Galactica game that I mentioned above has been a pleasure - it's been great to have a regular group with which to play a long game consistently, and to really grow familiar with the game. The Fury of Dracula game I played last fall was an unexpected joy. And Conflict of Heroes is a light wargame that I'm excited to play more of in 2010.

Roleplaying Games

While I loved RPGs as a kid, and I've been playing in off-again, on-again games of D&D since 2004, 2009 was the year that I really started roleplaying again in earnest. A big part of this stemmed from sitting in on some of the panels at Gamestorm and really starting to think about the kind of play I want from my roleplaying. In turn, that led to diving into all of the terrific new small press games that have come out in the last few years, and meeting a few local folks through GoPlayPDX that have been really helpful as I began to test these new waters. I haven't been able to get in much of the longer, multiple-session games that I'm looking for yet, but I've done a lot of reading that's really changed the way I think about my play. More importantly, I've been able to try out a raft of games that have shown me those innovations in action - especially Dogs in the Vineyard, Dust Devils, Lady Blackbird, Mouse Guard, and PTA - and I'm looking forward to playing even more this year.

New Year's Day 2010

A happy new year to all that stumble across this message. It's been a while since I've posted anything here, as life has been especially busy as of late, but I hope that with the new year I can return to this project with renewed vigor.

Also, since I've been in a reflective mood and this song has been on my mind quite a bit lately, and because Mr. Chesnutt just left our world, I'd like to share a little music: