intense beige

(Not) Just Like Falling for the First Time

2009-07-27T16:06:00.006-05:00

Last weekend, Susi and I went to see Barenaked Ladies in concert. This was the fifth time we have seen them play live, but the first since Steven Page left the band. They were playing at RibFest, a RAGBRAI kickoff event. That meant admission was pretty cheap ($20 apiece), but it also meant a solid majority of the crowd were drunken cyclists there for a cheap concert.

Musically, it was a good show, though not as good as some of their previous ones. Page's absence was definitely felt - without his voice the vocals were thinner and the harmonies not as tight. Perhaps more importantly, the best part of any BNL show is the banter and improvisation, and although they did some pretty good riffing on the sign language interpreter (I don't know, either) and copious amounts of BBQ they had consumed, losing the easy chemistry of your co-front man of 20 years hurt.

On the plus side, they were working hard to entertain. It was obvious that they were very serious about keeping fans, even going so far as to staying after the show to to meet and greet:

No, Kevin Hearn, YOU are the man.

So, it was a good show. If I hadn't seen them so many times previously, it may have even been a great show. It just wasb't the same, though.

Friday Five: 7/24

2009-07-24T12:08:00.004-05:00

In which I blather about five songs randomly selected from my iPod playlist as I listen to them.

"Yellow Submarine" - The Beatles
Number 2 on my personal list of songs the Beatles have done regarding underwater matters (#1 being "Octopus's Garden ," naturally).

"If you Love Somebody Set Them Free" - Sting
It doesn't seem like much now, but I remember being really intrigued by this video when it first came out.

"Freedom" - Wham!
"Baby you could drag me to hell and back/ Just as long as we're together/ And you do." Great, great song.

"Be My Yoko Ono" - Barenaked Ladies
"I know that when I say say this I may be stepping on pins and needles/ But I don't like all these people slagging her for breaking up the Beatles/ If I was John and you were Yoko I would gladly give up musical genius/ Just to have you as my very own personal Venus." The genius of BNL, especially on Gordon, is that they are able to be silly and completely sincere at the same time.

"Happy Valentine's Day" - OutKast
"Now when arrows don't penetrate, see/ Cupid grabs the pistol/ And he shoots straight for your heart/ And when he won't miss you!/ That's alright 'cause y'all won't believe in me anyways/ Ya won't believe in me, but you would fancy leprechauns or groundhogs/ No thank you, Easter Bunny!/ There's all this talk about Santa Claus, but see love will rule reign supreme." From The Love Below, a hip-hop song from the perspective of a modern cupid. Extremely cool.

Triple Play

2009-07-22T16:49:00.003-05:00

Friday night gaming... three people... yadda yadda yadda.

Dominion: I won (Mike a close second, Jay a distant third) following a strategy of only buying treasure cards, highest-value territory cards, and 1-2 types of action cards (my constantly having a Market card in hand really started to irk Mike).

Small World: Mike won (me a close second, Jay a distant third). My Subterranean Halflings didn't give me as much oomph as I needed.

Pandemic: We won on medium difficulty with the researcher, scientist and dispatcher. We were able to knock off 2 diseases pretty quickly due to a favorable initial card draw. I think next time we play 3-player, we might be ready for the (assumed) mind-blowing insanity of 6 Epidemic cards.

Friday Five: 7/17

2009-07-17T13:49:00.003-05:00

In which I blather about five songs randomly selected from my iPod playlist as I listen to them.

"Am I the Only One?" - Barenaked Ladies
Am I the only one/ Who had to dress you up/ To see how you fell down?/ Am I the only one/ You needs you to go/ Go on without me/ Am I the only one/ Who loves when you leave/ Your hair down in front of your eyes?" Simple but pretty little song from Maybe You Should Drive.

"Blue Heaven" - The Pogues
Jaunty tune (not a cover of the standard) from Peace and Love.

"Connected" - Stereo MC's
Is this trip-hop? Trance? I have no idea when you get to sub-genres that fine. Wikipedia tells me this is this title theme for "Burn Notice," which I've never actually seen.

"Radio Song" - R.E.M. with KRS-One
"What are you saying?/ What are you playing?/ Who're you obeying?/ Day after day it's/ Baby baby baby/ That stuff is driving me crazy." One of the odder rock/hip-hop crossovers, but it is one of my favorite tracks from Out of Time.

"Dancing in the Sheets" - Shalamar
Footloose: so-so movie, kick-ass soundtrack.

The Queue

2009-07-08T10:29:00.002-05:00

A periodic feature in which I regale you with thrilling tales of my Netflix queue.

Returned
Justice League (Season 2, Discs 2 & 3): Most of the episodes from this series are good to very good, but every once in a while there's one that's "holy shit" good. "The Terror Beyond" was one of those episodes. Not only did it feature a Defenders-homage lineup and culminate and Solomon Grundy and Hawkgirl beating up Cthulhu's brain, but the ending is about enough to break your heart as well. Great stuff.

Sex and the City (Season 4, Discs 2& 3): More of the same.

Slumdog Millionaire: Good, but not great. The writing was clever and the acting was fine, but I guess it didn't live up to the hype.

Spellbound: A fairly interesting documentary about the 1999 national spelling bee. It's worth watching, if for no other reason, to see the musical robot kid (hours later I was still cracking up at that).

At Home
The Muppet Movie
Sex and the City (Season 5, Discs 1 & 2)

Misfire

2009-07-06T10:56:00.004-05:00

For I couple of weeks, I've been working intermittently on a campaign version of Gunslinger - basically just a decision-tree of shootouts where the other players would control the same 1 or 2 individuals and I supplied all the opposition. Since we had everyone there on Friday for a change, I thought it might be a good opportunity to play through a few basic shootouts as a rules refresher. The results made me glad I had only been working on this idea intermittently.

The first one we played was Thieves Fall Out, which is one we played way back when (I also ran at Nuke-Con). In it, 4 outlaws - the Kid (Jay), the Border Rider (me), the Gun Artist (Matt) and Innocente (Mike) - are gathered around their loot when violence erupts. We began arrayed in a circle, so the Kid and Border Rider, across from each other, began by taking a step back (removing ourselves from Innocente's and Gun Artist's peripheral vision, respectively). Also in the first turn (ie, the first 2 seconds of the gunfight), the Kid used his quick draw ability to get off a quick, inaccurate shot at Innocente with his revolver, and everyone else unlimbered their rifle and began to aim - Border Rider at Gun Artist, GA at Innocente, and Innocente at the spot where the Kid used to be. By the end of turn two (4 seconds into the gunfight), both GA and Innocente were dead. In the ensuing turn, the Kid winged BR in the non-gun arm with his Colt .45 despite being at long range for a handgun. Faced with a massive penalty if he tried to fire his rifle, BR drew his pistol and advanced. The Kid had plenty of time to get his Winchester ready and put BR down for a fairly easy victory, though.

After some of the "light-hearted" grumbling that was going on, I probably shouldn't have even set up the second showdown. But I did. Unfortunately. That showdown took place on a larger board, a town where 4 old enemies - the Marshal (Mike), the Mountain Man (Matt), the Dude (me) and Ike (Jay) - had gathered to settle their scores for good. Due to the setup method (everyone writes down what hex they are starting in before simultaneous placement), Ike and the Marshal ended up in close proximity, while the Mountain Man and Dude and closer to the other side of the board. The Marshal, inside a building crouched behind a window, got off a shot at Ike, who was leaning out around a corner, but missed. Despite the fact that Ike was aiming at him, he re-cocked his rifle (instead of, say, ducking below the window sill) and was going aim again, if not for the bullet that hit his head. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, the Dude (armed with a sawn-off shotgun and going against a long-range specialist) was maneuvering to make sure there was as little distance as possible between him and his opponent when there was finally an opportunity for a clear shot. The Mountain Man obliged by rushing headlong around a corner and, for some reason, attempting to get the Dude into a bear hug. Two barrels worth of buckshot to the face disabused him of that notion.

As I was pondering how to maneuver next to counter Jay's long-range advantage, the complaints about how lethal the game is and how long it takes to move anywhere somehow turned into taking pictured of flipping each other off with cell phone cameras. It was about at this point I went from irritated to just wanting it over with. The Dude grabs MM's buffalo rifle and heads out into the street, get shot by Ike, and is incapacitated for long enough for Ike to finish him off. Game over.

I guess I was too polite to say no when Bang! was suggested after that. We played 3 quick games. I won the first as the Renegade. In the second game, I was the Sheriff and was eliminated very quickly. In the last game, I was again the Renegade but went out first. After that it really very close, with the Sheriff (Jay) and the 2 Outlaws each down to 1 bullet at one point. Eventually, the Outlaws prevailed. It probably would have been pretty exciting if I hadn't been too pissed to care.

Friday Five: 7/3

2009-07-03T12:51:00.002-05:00

In which I blather about five songs randomly selected from my iPod playlist as I listen to them.

"Hawkmoon 269" - U2
Sparse, moody song from Rattle and Hum. It's a great late-night road trip song.

"Love Hater" - OutKast
From the Andre 3000 side of Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, the songs from which impress me more and more every time I listen to them. One of the great albums of this decade.

"Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis)" - Cowboy Junkies
Another one from The Trinity Session, featuring an original song that incorporates a truly phenomenal version of the original "Blue Moon" in the middle. Great song.

"Blame It on Me" - Barenaked Ladies
"Here you are and you're a hundred thousand miles away/ They say absence makes the heart grow fungus/ I wax poetic, as you're waxing your legs/ You say you think there's a traitor among us/ If all else fails you can blame it on me."

"There She Goes Again" - R.E.M.
One of, I think, 3 R.E.M. covers of Velvet Underground songs on my playlist.

Snakebitten

2009-07-02T13:47:00.002-05:00

Corry and finished out the NLCS in our ongoing playoff simulation, and the results were not pretty. For me, at least. Game 6 saw the Diamondbacks jump all over Tom Glavine en route to a 10-2 win. Luis Gonzalez and Junior Spivey hit 2 home runes apiece, with Mark Grace adding another to power the win. Schilling went all 9 innings, striking out 11. In Game 7, Arizona built a 7-0 lead through 8 innings thanks to 2 home runs from Steve Finley and 1 from Gonzalez. The Braves tried to make it interesting in the top of the 9th, but they could only come up with 4 runs.

With the Yankees ahead 3-2 in the ALCS, it's looking like a good shot for him to advance both of his teams to the World Series.

Three Strikes

2009-06-25T10:54:00.003-05:00

Corry has been playing baseball this summer for the high school's freshman team (baseball here is a summer sport, so the team is open to incoming freshman, of which Corry is one). Yesterday, he got the call-up to play with the JV team, playing first base for both ends of a double-header. He played really well defensively and went 1-for-4 in the first game. The second game was quite a bit more ragged for everyone on the team (we're still in triple digits for heat index, I believe), but he still did OK. I have to give him credit - he has really worked hard and improved since last year.

***

Corry's club team has its season-ending tournament this weekend, so that will wipe out gaming for me.

***

We have only managed to get in two more games of our playoff simulation. Game 5 of the NLCS featured a pretty good pitcher's duel between Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux. Arizona took a 4-2 lead (on 3 hits,1 walk, and 3 Atlanta errors) into the bottom of the 9th, but then gave up 4 runs - capped by a 3-run Rafeal Furcal homer - without recording an out. To add injury to insult, earlier in the game the D-Backs lost Reggie Sanders (RF) and Jay Bell (2B) for the rest of the series after they collided going for the same pop fly. Atlanta is now ahead 3-2; the series heads back to Arizona and will most likely feature Curt Schilling against Tom Glavine in Game 6.

Over in the AL, Seattle pulled to 3-2 with a Game 5 win behind Jaime Moyer. The Mariners got to Game 1 winner Andy Pettite early and cruised to a 7-2 victory. The good news for the M's is that the series now moves back to Seattle. The bad news is that the Yankees will have Roger Clemens and Mike Mussina for games 6 and 7, and Seattle is in the "pray for rain" section of their rotation.

I Was Expecting More Marilyn McCoo

2009-06-24T14:32:00.003-05:00

We took the girls to see Up last night. Some of it (especially the parts with the dogs) was a bit intense for my 7 year-old, but other than that it was fantastic - easily the best Pixar film since The Incredibles. What really sold it, for me, was the voice work. Ed Asner and Christopher Plummer were as excellent as you would expect them to be, but to get that kind of performance out of an 8 year-old with no acting experience? Just amazing. And if that montage at the beginning didn't break your heart, then I really don't know what to say.

So, Up - highly recommended.

Illogical

2009-06-23T17:11:00.003-05:00

Are auditory hallucinations a symptom of hyperthermia? It is super hot here, and the air conditioner at work has picked today to finally conk out for good (given the way the building management works, we can maybe expect it to be fixed by October). So I have to do some errands, which means getting in my car that has been sitting in the sun all day, and is thus somehow even hotter than the office. And I'm flipping around the radio, and three different stations are all playing Supertramp at the same time. Three! And three different songs, no less. So I'm thinking heat stroke, because there is no other possible reason why that should be happening in 2009, is there?

Potpourri

2009-06-23T09:42:00.003-05:00

We were still down a man for Friday gaming, so we played several short 3-player games.

Dominion: It went more smoothly than the last time we played it, but it still seems a bit too bloodless for my tastes. I beat Mike by 1 victory point, with Jay a distant third.

Small World: Somehow, Mike and Jay only fought each other once the entire game - I was the one that was always getting caught between them. Mike ended up with 108 to Jay's 100 (I was back in the 70s somewhere).

Carcasonne: My big city never got finished, and I was never able to connect the fields that had 2 of my farmers in it to Mike's big farm to poach it away. Mike won going away, with Jay a distant second and me an even more distant third.

Pandemic: Medium difficulty (5 Epidemic cards), as the medic, researcher and scientist. We actually won relatively easily (I think our first 3-player win on medium difficulty), helped tremendously by being able to eradicate red pretty early. We hadn't played this in a while, I now I can't remember why - it was easily my favorite game of the night.

Master of My Domain

2009-06-18T16:48:00.002-05:00

Matt was still out of town for game night last Friday, but Corry filled in so we had 4 players. Mike had recently acquired Dominion and wanted to try it out. We played 2 games, although in the first we botched the rules pretty badly (Corry won that one going away, so I'm not counting it). The second game was played with the "interaction" card set, and was much closer - I won with 36 points, Mike was second with 34, Corry had 30 and Jay was pretty far back for last.

It was... OK. I would play it again, but I don't know that I would look forward to doing so. Even with the "interaction" cards, it still feels like you are playing competitive solitaire, which isn't always my favorite type of game. It could very well have been that I was in the mood for something different, and that is coloring my perceptions, though.

Friday Five: 6/12

2009-06-12T17:20:00.003-05:00

In which I blather about five songs randomly selected from my iPod playlist as I listen to them.

"Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" - Jimi Hendrix
If he had lived, Jimi would be turning 67 this year. Makes you wonder how relevant he would still be.

"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" - The Police
Not one of my favorites, but still very listenable.

"Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" - U2
"You bury your treasure where it can't be found/ But your love is a secret that's been passed around/ There is a silence that comes to a house/ Where no-one can sleep/ I guess it's the price of love/ I know it's not cheap." Another under-appreciated song from Achtung Baby.

"Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" - Harry Connick Jr
I had the chance to see him live once - it was pretty good show. An impromptu performance of the Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom theme by the trumpet player turned into a contest to stump him with any TV theme song. We couldn't.

"Sweet Jane" - Cowboy Junkies
Cover of the Lou Reed song from The Trinity Session, and absolutely amazing semi-live album. Beautiful rendition dominated by sparse instrumentation and Margo Timmins' gorgeous vocals.

The Queue

2009-06-10T13:46:00.002-05:00

A periodic feature in which I regale you with thrilling tales of my Netflix queue.

Watched
Sex and the City (Season 3): 4 to go.

Undeclared (Complete Series): Occasionally brilliant, but very uneven. It's a shame it never had a chance to hit its stride.

In Progress
Justice League (Season 2): On disc 2 of 4. Very solid.

Sex and the City (Season 4): On disc 2 of 3. It makes me laugh every couple of episodes, but it would have been dropped a while ago if it were up to me. It has yet to become intolerable, though.

Unwatched
Slumdog Millionaire: I guess it won some awards or something?

Almost as Frustrating as the Real Thing

2009-06-10T09:41:00.003-05:00

Not much gaming recently, but Corry and I have been playing more Dynasty League Baseball (ironically, the reason there has been no gaming is that Corry has had baseball games the last couple of Fridays). We're re-playing the 2001 league championships series, and will eventually do the World Series.

After 4 games, things are tied up in the National League. The Braves (me) took the first 2 games in Phoenix, with Maddux out dueling Schilling 4-1 and Glavine beating Randy Johnson 4-2. Then they came home and dropped the next 2 games, 3-2 (Albie Lopez and Kevin Millwood in an unlikely pitcher's duel) and 11-7. The good news for me is that Maddux and Glavine are my next 2 pitchers up again, but this series could still go either way.

Things are looking a bit grimmer for me in the American League, where my Mariners are down 3 games to 1. They dropped the first three, 3-2, 10-4 and 5-1, before finally getting a 5-0 win behind Freddy Garcia, who came back from the close game 1 loss to pitch an absolute gem on 3 days of rest - a complete game, 1-hit (damn you, Paul O'Neill) shutout. I'm not sanguine about my chances of winning 3 straight against the Yankees (or, as I like to refer to them, the "fucking Yankees"), but at I least I won't be swept.

Friday Five: 5/29

2009-05-29T12:28:00.003-05:00

In which I blather about five songs randomly selected from my iPod playlist as I listen to them.

"When Love Comes to Town" - U2
Duet with B.B. King from Rattle and Hum. A pretty by-the-numbers song, but the presence of King (and Lucille) makes it quite a bit more special.

"Let's Go Crazy" - Prince
I like the faux-preacher bit at the beginning.

"Tom's Diner" - DNA & Suzanne Vega
So, a couple of British DJs take a 10 year-old a cappella folk song about nothing (interesting coincidence - the actual Tom's Diner was the inspiration for Monk's on Seinfeld) and put it to a dance beat. And not only is it not terrible, it is actually pretty awesome.

"Dancing Barefoot" - U2
This cover of the Patti Smith song was actually the b-side to "When Love Comes to Town." The Edge sounds phenomenal on it.

"Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" - K.T. Tunstall
So I was watching VH1 while ironing a shirt one morning, and they were playing a live performance of this song. One by one, she captured all the background elements (hand claps, the "woo-hoo"s, etc) on a playback machine so she could accompany herself. It was pretty amazing.

Beware of Knock-Offs

2009-05-29T10:20:00.003-05:00

Susi and I have been watching The Fashion Show, Bravo's replacement for the departed Project Runway. It's... not that good. Not terrible, but not particularly memorable either. The biggest weakness is having the Isaac Mizrahi/ Kelly Rowland tandem serve as host, mentor and judge. I miss non-judgemental Tim and extremely judgemental Michael. August, right?

A Night of Unrelenting Horror

2009-05-27T14:52:00.003-05:00

Mike was gone for game night this week. Before we got started, Jay and I were talking about Guitar Hero for some reason, and it occurred to me that nobody was using the TV downstairs (the one with the Wii attached to it). So, for the first time ever, game night went video.

However, when setting up the drums, I discovered that the wire the connected the yellow cymbal (very important in GH) to the rest of the drums had caught on something and pulled free from the plug head. It was then I came to a realization that even years of Lovecraftian gaming could not have prepared me for. One of us... would have to sing. The less said of that portion of game night the better, other than that I am a poor singer and a mediocre lead guitarist, Matt is a mediocre singer and a terrible lead guitarist, and Jay is a mediocre singer but otherwise awesome.

After that, we played a couple of games of Small World. The first game saw my first ever defeat as my first race (Berserk Dwarves) failed to get anything done and I was playing catch-up from the get go. Matt was the winner in that one. For the second game, Matt had to leave but Corry was back so we were still at 3 players. I won that one going away. Jay tried a turtling strategy, and Corry was more worried about Jay than me, which meant there weren't a lot of conquests coming my way (I still had several Spirit Halflings, my first race, on the board at the end of the game).

Friday Five: 5/22

2009-05-22T12:22:00.002-05:00

In which I blather about five songs randomly selected from my iPod playlist as I listen to them.

"Old Friend" - Lyle Lovett
While the first half of I Love Everybody is filled with quirk and whimsy, the second half has a lot of beautiful little melancholy songs like this one.

"Dance Hall Days" - Wang Chung
"Take your baby by her hair/ And pull her closer there, there, there/ Take your baby by the ears/ And play upon her darkest fears." Although more remembered for their self-referential other song, I've always felt this one was superior by far. And a bit sinister when you really listen to it.

"When I Look at the World" - U2
"When the night is someone else's/ And you're trying to get some sleep/ When your thoughts are too expensive/ To ever want to keep/ When there's all kinds of chaos/ And everyone is walking lame/ You don't even blink now, do you/ Or even look away/ So I try to be like you/ Try to feel it like you do/ But without you it's no use/ I can't see what you see/ When I look at the world" For reasons I can't adequately explain, I really love this song. It is just begging to be used as a dramatic backdrop in some sort of rpg campaign (Fading Suns, especially).

"I Want to Hold Your Hand" - The Beatles
It's a shame what those boys did to Clarence, man.

"Lips Like Sugar" - Echo & the Bunnymen
There's this newer radio station in town that bills itself as having a "classic pop" format. What that means is that every once in while they'll pull out a gem like this, which you haven't heard in 20 years, and put it heavy rotation for a couple of months. Pretty cool.

Going, Going... Going... Going...

2009-05-21T10:18:00.003-05:00

Corry and I have been playing a lot of Small World lately (he has yet to beat me). As a change of pace, I dug out my copy of Dynasty League Baseball (which is more or less a refinement of Pursue the Pennant) to introduce him to the wonderful world of statistics-based geekery. We played the Braves versus the Astros (2001 versions, although we were in the Astrodome since I don't seem to have the stats for Houston's current ballpark). Thirteen scoreless innings later, we were still at it. Finally, in the top of the 14th, Atlanta plated an unearned run (followed up by a completely gratuitous Chipper Jones 3-run homer a couple of batters later). Even though I lost, I was just kind of relieved it was over.

I used to play Dynasty League with Mike quite a bit, and my brother-in-law has some experience with it as well. I am tentatively putting together some ideas for something more structured than a series of pick-up games for 4 people, probably recreating a post-season (yes, this is all an elaborate plan to experience the vicarious thrill of an '01 Mariners World Series title).

My ulterior motive, though, is to line up a replacement gaming fix. Matt is going to be out of town for all of June and the last half of July. Starting in August Mike will be resuming his Friday-night refereeing gig. We haven't had a regular rpg campaign in over a year, and probably won't for the foreseeable future. I am afraid that our group dynamic has , much like a scoreless baseball game in the 13th inning, gotten to the point where you are just sort of waiting around for it to end.

Friday Five: 5/15

2009-05-15T12:32:00.002-05:00

In which I blather about five songs randomly selected from my iPod playlist as I listen to them.

"Like a Prayer" - Madonna
I don't like a lot of Madonna's stuff, but the quasi-Catholic in me gets a kick out of this one. This is one of those versions that has been needlessly re-mixed for a compilation album, demonstrating the dangers of buying a song with multiple versions from the iTunes store.

"Creeps Like Me" - Lyle Lovett
"I knew this pretty girl once/ She was eighteen... maybe/ What's a year or two/ One day when she asked me/ If I loved her, I said baby/ What's it worth to you?/ Look around and you will see/ This worlds is full of creeps like me/ You look surprised, you shouldn't be/ This world is full of creeps like me." If I haven't mentioned it before, Lyle Lovett is extremely funny in concert, especially telling the story about how this song was written.

"When Doves Cry" - Prince
Until it was pointed out to me, I never even noticed this song had no bass line. It gives an already good song a unique sound.

"Don't Speak" - No Doubt
It's interesting to listen to a song that became ubiquitous long after it's popularity has faded. Will you think "why did I ever listen to this crap?" or "now I remember why I really dug this song before it got played to death." This one is much closer to the second category.

"Time After Time" - Cyndi Lauper
Maybe a little sappy, but I've always enjoyed this one.

The Queue

2009-05-13T11:02:00.003-05:00

A periodic feature in which I regale you with thrilling tales of my Netflix queue.

Watched
Bedtime Stories: My daughters wanted this one. They seemed to enjoy it.

Hoop Dreams: "People always say to me, 'when you get to the NBA, don't forget about me.' Well, I should've said back, 'if I don't make it to the NBA, don't you forget about me.'" It wasn't as spell-binding as the first time I watched it (many years ago), but I was able to see the entire thing this time. Well worth watching, even f you don't like basketball.

Sex and the City (Season 2): By the end of the season, I think the premise was starting to feel played out.

This American Life (Season 1): Since I've become a huge fan of the radio show, this is like an extra little fix.

In Progress
Sex and the City (Season 3): On disc 1 of 3. I get the feeling this series will be a regular entry on the queue for the foreseeable future.

Undeclared (Complete Series): On disc 3 of 3. It's uneven, but seems to be hitting its stride. Not as good as Freaks and Geeks, but then, what is?

Cards & Conquests

2009-05-11T15:22:00.002-05:00

After having to cancel the week before, the poker game I had been planning went off as (re-)scheduled Saturday night with the usual suspects (Matt, Jay, my dad, my brother-in-law Chris and me) in attendance. We led off with a HORSE tournament that Chris won. He built up a pretty big stack during the first round of Razz, taking every hand and putting out Matt, then busting Jay during Stud. I temporarily passed him in chip count during the second round of Hold'Em, but he took a large-ish hand off of me and took out dad to regain the chip lead going into head-to-head. That only took about 2 hands, when I went all-in with pocket 8s against 2 over cards (I lost that race when he paired a Queen).

We played a straight Hold'Em tournament after that, that I don't quite remember all the details of. Dad was knocked out first, followed by Matt then me. Jay ended up beating Chris in head-to-head. I was kind of hoping that we would play some dealer's choice instead of a second tournament, but I think dad and I are the only ones who are into that. Still, it was a nice evening.

...

I've also been enjoying Small World quite a bit. Most of the games have been 2-player ones against Corry. He hasn't beaten me yet, but he's getting closer. We also managed to get in an impromptu session with Jay and Mike. In the 3-player game, they got tangled up with each other, and my Forest Wizards had one side of the board pretty much to themselves, which allowed me to build up a huge lead and cruise to victory. In the second game, Corry joined us. Defying my expectations, he tangled with Mike and then Jay instead of vindictively coming after me (although, in his defense, both times they messed with his territories first). I only used two races the entire game, but my Seafaring Elves were doing so well in decline that hated to get rid of them. My other race were Pillaging Ratmen, and I had more to gain by conquering new territories than holding old ones with them, so I got into the habit of abandoning the map every turn and attacking somewhere new. Jay had (I think) built an early lead, but I was hard to attack and wound up with the win again.

I really liked how it plays when you get more people involved. Unfortunately, I don't think Mike was overly enamoured with it, so I don't know what that means how much playtime it will get in the future. I think it will definitely be going with me come convention time, though.

Friday Five: 5/1

2009-05-01T12:00:00.007-05:00

In which I blather about five songs randomly selected from my iPod playlist as I listen to them.

"Homeless" - Paul Simon
'Duet' with Ladysmith Black Mombazo from Graceland. It has a nice laid-back groove, even if I'm not really sure what it is supposed to be about.

"There She Goes Again" - The Velvet Underground
One of the more accessible songs from their first album.

"Money for Nothing" - Dire Straits
When he did the impromptu backing vocals for this song, Sting used the melody from "Don't Stand So Close to Me," garnering him a co-songwriting credit. I'm speculating that made him quite a bit of money for pretty much no effort. Irony?

"Crazy Love, Vol. II" - Paul Simon
I guess it is Graceland day today. I have no opinion about that.

"Ruby Tuesday" - The Corrs
Cover of the Rolling Stones song (featuring Stones guitarist Ron Wood) from their live VH-1 concert album. It's a little exuberant during the chorus, but a very good cover.