Zangz's Blog of Geekdom

There Be Dragons Here!

2011-12-11T17:09:00.002-06:00

Just what has been occupying my time since Halloween, you may be asking? The severe lack of posts are not due to the usual lack of inspiration this time around.

Truth be told, I've been spending an ungodly amount of my time within a fantasy world where Dragons have returned, knights in shinning amour have given way to viking warriors and where ancient undead soldiers spend time lurking about in forgotten tombs and are just waiting for an ass-whoopin'.

If you've had your video game playing head in the sand for the last month you'd know I'm talking about the most ambitious, open world, role playing game to possibly ever grace counsel gaming systems.

On 11/11/11 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released to the masses. And you can bet you're sword wielding, potion poppin', amour wearing, sweet behinds that yours truly was in his local Gamestop at midnight to get his little paws all over this masterpiece.

Granted, I was probably the oldest geek in the place. No matter! I got my copy in a short period of time and tore back home to my apartment and popped that wonderful little disc into my '360 and sat in a state of mad anticipation!

The intro was very short and sweet and the next thing I knew I was being led into the story head first. Soon after I was working on the intricate character creation system. Then as soon as the introductory part of the story was over and the game let me decided what I wanted to do next, I found myself wandering the huge and beautiful landscapes.......

Once I actually looked at the clock and realized it was 5 AM I decided to take a short nap . I had wisely taken that Friday off from work and found myself up by 10 AM and back at the game. Since then I have taken advantage of the cold, gloomy and dark atmosphere that has seemed to curse the subsequent winter weekends and found a plethora of time to clock in at least 48 hours of the game. It being and open world, sandbox game, I found it very easy to do.

So what do I think of it?

One of the BEST GAMES I'VE EVER PLAYED!

Keep in mind, I'm an oldster. My first game system was a big red plastic box that you connected to your UHF atenea to play Pong. So I've been playing for a while and I can honestly say that this game has blown a few of my all times faves out of their places in the pantheon that is Zangz's All Time Favorite Video Games.

I have yet to reach the end of the main quest and story for the game, but have logged in more than enough hours to be able to give a decent review.

The main story revolves around you arriving in this Norse mythology influenced fantasy realm as a prisoner who was captured trying to illegally cross the border into the Northern most realm of the Elder Scrolls fantasy world know as Skyrim. You're cuffed and in a wagon with other prisoners being taken to your execution that is take part in a small town. As your head is being laid on the chopping block, all hell breaks loose as a dragon attacks and destroys the town. Once you escape the destruction the world is your oyster.

You can pursue the main story quest and find out why long extinct dragons have returned to the world and what major part you play in it. Or you can do whateverhellyouwantto! It's all your choice.

I found myself spending hours traveling the roads and reveling in the majesty and beauty of the Skyrim world before I took on any of either the main or side quests. There's almost too much to do and explore in this world.

There are hundreds of places to check out. Whether it be burial tombs, caves, ancient dwarven ruins, keeps, bandit forts, small townships and extravagant cities, there's hundreds of places to search, loads of people to interact with, take on dangers, loot treasure chests and look for cool-as-heck magical items. Almost each and every place you come upon, your jaw will drop at its beauty. The whole world is definitely seeped in fantastical artistry.

The game keeps you busy. I've been biding my time with the main quest, taking it in a little at a time so I don't blow through it too quickly. Luckily I've been keeping busy with the multitude of side quests that are provided for you in the game. Holy crap, there are a lot!! There are the main quest missions, then each city and township has its own set of quests for you, then there are the factions and political parties you can join who have a bunch of quests for you. AND THEN there are bunch of side and miscellaneous quest you can randomly come upon. It's mind blowing!!!!

You can take a gander at the gameplay right HERE!

They've also made the combat and magic systems much easier than any of the previous Elder Scrolls games. You don't have to be a hard core RPG geek to get the hang of how to manipulate and use your inventory.

In past Elder Scrolls games, I've played as a brute warrior with a penchant for hack'n'slash gameplay. This time around I've found it easy enough to play as a combo warrior / thief-esque / assassin type character without having to dick around too much with a complicated interface. You build up the stats from what you actually do in the game. You don't have to worry about wondering where to allocate a ton of skill points into. The game pretty much does it for you per how you like to play. Every time you level up you only have to worry about putting points into three (count 'em THREE) attributes and then only one point into a skill.

Do you want to be a bad-ass warrior? You can do that! Do you and to be sneaky thief? You can do that! Do you want to play as a powerful mage? You can do that! Do you want to play as all of the above? You can do that! Do you want to play as a little bit more of the above and a little bit less of the above? You can do that! They've really taken the whole sandbox gameplay ideal and applied it to RPG mechanics with little confusion for the player.

Here's a quick video on the gameplay mechanics of the game.

The world itself is an organic (over used annoying word alert!) living world where characters live their lives day to day despite your existence in it. Time moves on no mater what you do or don't do. Here's a time laps look at one of the cites in the game.

I could go on and on and on with what makes this game so frackin' awesome I'd be typing this post all night. Suffice it to say, this is one of the best gaming experiences I've had since Grand Theft Auto III came out or the time I first discovered Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. You may be asking yourself, "Does he think that there is anything is wrong with it?"

I've only run across a couple of things that slightly irk me.

First, I notice that once you discover and clear out a dungeon, cave, fort, whatever, that the enemies within don't regenerate if you revisit that same place later in the game. In Elder scrolls IV: Oblivion, a short time after you cleared a place you could go back in and still go after baddies while looting treasures. This doesn't seem to be the case in Skyrim. That could kill a little of the replay value that the Elder Scrolls games pride themselves for. I have to play through a lot more of the game to see if these dungeons are revisit-able, but right now it's looking like once you complete a dungeon, it's just an empty dungeon.

The net has been afire with a lot of criticisms of a lot of the major glitches that can plague the game. We all know that these Elder Scrolls games are so incredibly huge it is hard for developers, Bethesda, to catch all of the glitches before release time. In fact, in the past, some of these glitches are kind of amusing and endearing to a lot of us. This game, however, has a little too much of them and in some cases can make a quest incomplete. I came across such a quest where I was to collect three separate necklaces in three separate dungeons. I made the mistake of forgetting to grab the necklace off of the first dungeon boss in the first dungeon. When I returned much later on in the game to collect the necklace off the the carcass of the undead viking warrior, he was gone and the quest arrow telling me where the location of the necklace was pointing at the empty ground where the necklace should have been. So I couldn't complete the quest. Bummer!

Do these faults ruin the game? Hell no!!! The game is still a wonder to behold!

Lift up your cups or grog to the people at Bethesda Games who have created one of the top video gaming experiences that I have ever had the pleasure!!!!

For Xmas this year get you loved ones this game! They won't be disappointed..... unless they wer born without a soul.

Zangz.

Halloween Has Arrived....

2011-10-31T16:32:00.005-05:00

"While most foolish others treated it like any other Monday, Erasmus Burke stayed at home this Halloween. The day prior he spent boarding up the doors and windows of his little house as best he could, locking himself inside, making sure there was no way anybody or anything could make their way inside either by accident or by force.

The outside world viewed Erasmus as an odd little man. A loner who lived on the corner of one of the oldest graveyards of the city. It was his job to maintain the grounds and prepare the graves for incoming.....residents.

In recent months, during his daily duties in the graveyard, odd things started to transpire. At first it started as a slight whisper coming from nowhere in particular. Erasmus would dismiss it as the wind through the trees or the rustling of leaves on the ground. But, as time went on, the disembodied voice grew to several voices. They also became more clearer. Their message was one of their return from the grave to seek vengeance on the living this coming Halloween.

Erasmus took these warnings to heart. Prior to sealing off his doors and windows he lit the Jack-O-Lanterns on his front porch. These were the only way a house could be marked as safe from the ghouls that would soon be floating about the living world. At least, that's what the dead had told Erasmus. He'd seen a thing or two during his long tenure at the graveyard that proved the fact that you should never turn your back on the dead. So he readied his home for the oncoming resurrection of the dead.

The final plank against the door was nailed shut an hour before midnight on October 30th. Erasmus then turned off all of the lights and

Erasmus dove under the covers with minutes to spare with his head underneath the safety of his blankets. Soon the clock on the wall chimed midnight. the witching hour had begun.

The wind that had lightly been blowing outside had suddenly stopped. An uneasy silence had crept across the graveyard and moved throughout the city. It lasted a minute or two. Then the bedlam started to begin.

It started with what sounded like a moan from far off in the distance. Then a wail. Then another moan. Then a shriek. Then a blood curdling howl. Then the sounds of the unliving wailed, moaned and shrieked in unison. The wind picked up again far stronger than before the silence.

Erasmus squeezed against the edge of the blanket holding it firm so that nothing could tear it off of him.

That's when the scratching noises started. Against the walls of his house there came tearing and scraping sounds that chilled his bones.

This bedlam and ruckus went on all through the night. It didn't go away once the morning came. He feared it would never end. Hour after hour the same scraping noised and strong winds kept on. The only difference was the horrid sounds of the undeads' moans and cries and wails that would change in pitch with each different being making their own sounds of terror.

After what felt like an eternity the sounds of terror started to become less frequent. The scraping had stopped, the wind had died down and then Erasmus heard his last moan off in the distance. Then a peaceful silence overcame the town.

A minute later his clock struck midnight marking November 1st. In a clod sweat, Erasmus pulled himself from the bed and stated to tear down the planks he put up across his door and windows. By the time he was done, the sun started to rise. He ran outside to check on the state of the graveyard and his home.

The first thing that had amazed him was that there were no tear marks on his house. In fact his Jack-O-Lanterns were still lit. The second thing that took Erasmus by surprise was that the graveyard was in excellent shape. No stoned or graves showed any signs of being disturbed. In fact the grounds seemed to be in a little bit better condition than he remembered them being in a long while.

The third an final thing that Erasmus noticed was a bit more disturbing. As he looked down the street he noticed that there were a few houses that seemed to have been torn up a bit with broken windows and tear marks against the houses. But, there ware only a few houses that seemed disturbed along the street. There were also a fair amount of houses that weren't messed with at all. The one difference that Erasmus noticed in the houses ware the ones that didn't have any damage were ones that had Jack-O-Lanterns out.

Erasmus smiled to himself knowing that he would be safe every Halloween since he knew he had a special alliance with those that he looked over. And they in return would look over him and all of the others that celebrated Halloween.

So if you haven't yet, make sure you light up those smiling, orange faces this evening and every Halloween from now on. Because you never know what may be lurking about tonight trying to judge who celebrates their holiday......... and who does not."

I'm not sure where the frack I was going with that, or where it came from for that matter. That's the kind of mess I make when I decide to "free write". It's certainly not Stephen King, but the holiday got the best of my creative juices. It's my way of saying to all of you.........

First Haunt of the Season Explored!

2011-10-16T15:41:00.003-05:00

"I awoke this morning in a cold sweat, still clinging to my bed quilt. I cautiously pulled myself from the bed and peeked through the window blinds hoping that my memories from the last night would be redeemed by the morning sunlight. Instead my eyes were met with bleak, dark gray skies.

I tensed up as a sense of caution streaked through me as it did continuously last night during the chilling events that I bore witness to.

It is said that every Halloween season is the time when the worlds of the dead are closest to touching the living and that paranormal encounters are far more frequent. For the last several years, me and my cohorts have explored a few of these places that are wrought with odd happenings.

Currently staying at a nice home in the countryside that we are using as a safe haven, I take the time to reflect on last nights occurrences.

Last night our curiosity of the macabre got the best of us. With a week load of a bright moon haunting the nights' skies, we should have seen this as an omen of things to come.

Not far from our sanctuary there is an old abandoned high school with a strong paranormal reputation. We decided to investigate it last night. God save our souls........"

And this dark little narrative is just the segue I need for my review of.........

The Haunted High School - Located just a short hop, skip, jump and run for your life from the main freeway is a huge abandoned high school in Oconomowoc, WI that is now wonderfully utilized as a yearly Haunted Attraction. Boasting itself as the largest haunt in Wisconsin and the only haunt with a creepy High School theme within the midwest, myself, Roberto Del Amorte and his lovely wife Iris Von Beaverhousen decided to see if this haunt was worth its bragging rights.

We got to the haunt a little later in the evening and were met with a full parking lot and gymnasium full of people waiting to get in. We decided on the Fast Pass option that got us a better place in line since we didn't want to hassle with the 90 minute wait. Though they had old horror movies playing on the walls of the gym, we wanted to jump right in and get our scare on!

Upon entering the haunt itself we were ushered down a flight of stairs that led to the workout rooms. This first area set the stage for the high school nightmares that were to come. Part work out gym and part torture chamber we saw more than a few poor souls tied and strapped to the workout equipment. The one problem that I found in this area that didn't seem to effect the rest of the haunt was that it was way too darkly lit. You couldn't see the tableaus that were meticulously put together. Not sure if that was on purpose or if some electrical feed was not working. In any case, the rest of the haunt was lit good enough to be spooky dark, yet still visible enough to not be missed.

Through the rest of the haunt I noticed that the effects and scenery were utilizing the Old School method. Instead of investing in uber-expensive, detailed effects that can be purchased at haunt conventions or online for the price of your soul, organizers used what they had and home made effects to fill the scenery and effects. For example, before abandoning the high school, the school district left behind a bevy of desks and lockers that became part of the outline of the mazes. Who needs to create a school house effect when they had one built in already? Would have it been nice to see that "wow" factor of an effect that would blow our minds? Sure. Was it necessarily needed here? Nope.

Traversing through all aspects of high school that bring back bad memories were all present here. The rotting "food" of the cafeteria, the impossible math equations, detention hall, the horticultural classes and of course the finale of the school quad, where instead of being terrorized from the dumb jock bullies, here you had to watch out for the chain-saw wielding maniac.

I'm always leery when they use young scare-actors as the ghouls for a haunt. Past haunts we've witnessed them standing around in groups talking to each other rather than putting on the scare. This group did surprisingly well. Most of them were into full character having a great time making us wet our pants. We only came across the weaker ones in the cheap masks giving out a half hearted "Rawrrrr" only once or twice.

One of the big set pieces is the auditorium where a chorus of animatronic skeletons sing along to "The Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show as ghoulish dancers try and get patrons to dance along. This was pretty impressive, but I think I would have been more awestruck if they had been referencing the ORIGINAL Rocky Horror and not the one based off of the uberhyped and over praised Glee version. The huge banner that had the Glee logo over the stage didn't help. Give me a little Bostwick and Sarandon, rather than a Finn or Puck in my Rocky Horror. No, I'm not a huge fan of Glee if you could tell.

On the far better side of things, this haunt was pretty frackin' long! 35 minutes for an indoor haunt is pretty good. Most don't last more than 20 minutes, if that. Most people who pay what we paid for other haunts get through the place just as their getting into the mood. Every point I thought we were coming to the end, there was a huge new area to discover.

Was this the best haunt of all time?. Well, no. The organizers could learn a thing or two if they attended one of the big haunt conventions and invested in just a few professional scares. But, was this a darn good haunt? You bet!!! A few adjustments and this baby could go big time!

In the end, The Haunted High School is a darn hearty haunt that is a bit of a spooky adventure that is a darn good scare, but not quite up there with the pro haunts. Its main strengths are the length of the show and it's home grown charm while the dedication of its young scare-actors could easily rival other haunts that use teens. Overall, I was pretty impressed!

Hopefully there will be more spooky adventures to be had this season. My Good friend, Mr. Bones has shown an interest in attending a haunt with yours truly. Let's see if he's up to the challenge.

Zangz.

The Source of My Love for Halloween: Saturday Morning Programing!

2011-10-01T14:56:00.005-05:00

A few weeks ago I found myself in a bit of a parking space jam. My apartment building is doing extensive work on the back parking lot where I park my car. So I've had to find an alternative parking method which has ended up being a night parking permit in an area that is a bit of a walk from my apartment.

In my neighborhood finding a parking spot is a luxury and I was able to find a little area that is right near a small park about one mile from my home. This has worked nicely for two reasons. One, it's in a small patch of higher class suburban neighborhood. Two, it has gotten me back to taking nice leisurely walks in the early mornings and evenings.

Many times my walks take place during the dark hours early in the morning or late at night. Many people may feel a bit uncomfortable taking walks during the dark hours. But, for me, it is quite the pleasure.

I enjoy the ghostly shadows of the trees of the park that shimmy and float about during windy weather. There's also a big, dark, gothic home that sits at the end of a dead end street that never seems to have any lights on or any movement going on inside or out. Who or what lives there, I wonder?

There's even a little patch of wooded area that I have to pass along on my daily jaunts. I always wonder what may be looking at me from inside the dark folliage. Is there a little chipmunk in a state of caution ready to high tail it up a tree if I move toward it? Or maybe it's a rabid raccoon that is ready pounce on my face if I move in it's general direction. Or, best yet, what if it is a reanimated corpse, freshly risen from the grave that would ramble on out, grabbing my head and taking a big chomp out of the front of it?

With these dark ideas running through my odd little mind, one may wonder, "Where did this guy's love of the macabre come from? What was the source for his love of all things spooky?"

I've been trying to trace back my love of all things spookarific for a while now and I have to tell you that it goes way back to my love of Saturday morning cartoons as a child.

Oddly, I was never really impressed with the Buggs Bunny, Looney Tunes type shows. I was more into the action, adventure and mystery influenced cartoons.

During the late 60's and early 70's there were a bunch of cartoons that centered around a group of teens and some form of mascot that would hunt ghosts and monsters.

There were a few rules that these shows all followed.

1) The group was always led by a good looking boy and good looking girl. The rest of the group were misfit looking goof balls that were the comedic relief.

2) The group always had some form of mascot character who was usually the main character and namesake of the show. It would usually be some sort of dog or animal. If it were a dog, it had to be able to talk.

3) The group would always drive around in some sort of 70's hot rod type vehicle such as a dune buggy or love van.

The grandaddy and first of the bunch was......

Scooby-Doo, Where are You? - Four teens, Freddy, Wilma, Daphne and Shaggy along with Shaggy's pet Great Dane, Scooby-Doo, go out of their way to discover the most creepy locations to hunt and find ghosts, ghouls and monsters that usually end up being some crook with an elaborate plan to either hide stolen money, steal money, or scheme someone out of money.

My earliest childhood memories revolve around getting up early on Saturday mornings and watching Scooby Doo. For whatever reason, I loved the hell out of that frackin' show as a kid.

Watch the intro to Scooby-Doo HERE!

After the success of Scooby-Doo, children's Saturday mornings were filled with teens and their wacky mascots solving mysteries. Here are a few of them that pretty much carbon copied Scooby-Doo's characters, plots, outlines, motifs and themes. Let's see which ones you all remember?

The Funky Phantom - Three teens and their bull dog who drive around in a dune-buggy join forces with the ghosts of a colonial gentleman and his pet cat. The group spend much of the episodes chasing other ghosts (who of course end up as crooks in costume). I loved this show as well. Watch the intro to the show HERE!

Goober and the Ghost Chasers - Talk about ripping off Scooby-Doo! This show even stole a lot of the images from the intro. This time it's a group of teens who have a dog that turns invisible when it's frightened. Check out the intro HERE!

Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels - Same concept here, except the three female girls were obviously conceived from the popularity of TV's Charlie's Angels. Oddly, there's no talking dog mascot in this show. Instead the girls hang out with a prehistoric super hero. See the intro HERE!

Fangface - Here we have yet another group of teens who's "mascot" is one of their own. One of the kids in the group is a werewolf . So whenever trouble ensues, one of the kids shows him a picture of a full moon (if there isn't one in the sky already) and he turns into wolf form and saves the day. See intro HERE!

Clue Club - Another bunch of teens. Another dune buggy. This one was a little less spooky and focused more on a group of teens and their two talking dogs that went after less over the top and creepy villains. I do remember one or two episodes where the gang did go after spooks, but it wasn't the norm for this cartoon. See intro HERE!

If you thought my love of the macabre was spawned from only the cartoons on Saturday mornings, you'd be wrong. Children's programing did have its share of live action shows and this next one was one of my all time favorites!

The Ghost Busters - About eight years prior to Bill Murry and Dan Akroyd putting proton packs on their backs, it was two former actors from the TV show "F Troop" and their trained gorilla hunting down ghosts and ghouls with a "Ghost Dematerializer". Every episode was pretty much the exact same story. Ghost Busters go on a mission to hunt a ghost. Ghost Busters go to the same haunted castle from the previous episode. Hi-jinx ensue. They catch the ghost with their big spotlight looking machine. End of story. Take a look at the intro HERE!

Monster Squad - The Ghost Busters wasn't the only live action spookfest that would take place on Saturday mornings. There was also this little gem. On Monster Squad there was a bit of a twist. Instead of a group of teens hunting monsters, it was one teen, named Walt, who controlled the famous monsters The Wolfman, Dracula and Frankenstein's monster. Walt would send them out on missions to take down criminals and other baddies. By day, the monsters would pose as wax figures in a museum. By night, they'd fight crime. Senator Fred "DON'T CALL ME GOPHER!!" Grandy played the roll of Walt. Let's take a little look-see right HERE!

Kids programming changed wildly when the 80's came. Cartoons were half hour commercials for an action figure line. There were no more spooks, no more haunted houses to search and no more dark grey backgrounds to get you into the mood. The bad guys were the same every episode. The days of teen mystery sleuths and their wacky pets and cohorts were dead.

I miss those chilly, fall Saturday mornings where a new crop of cartoons would issue in even more teen mystery shows that gave me my first taste of the macabre.

Zangz.

Season of Spooks Has Begun!

2011-09-24T11:34:00.003-05:00

The morning autumnal chill that we have recently awoken to makes most want to stay within the warm, cuddly, safe embrace of their bed quilts and pillows. But, for others of us, we know that there is far more to it than that.

We know that true safety only comes once the sun rises. During these longer nights, we know that there are things that dwell within the darkened shadows, lurking, waiting, whispering and moaning. They come from netherworlds and forgotten dimensions.

For most people these mythical monstrosities are things of legends and campfire stories. But, for others of us that know better, they are the unspeakable horrors that feast off of the living's fears and flesh.

FOR THIS IS THE HALLOWEEN SEASON!!!

And right on into the season we go here on my Blog of Geekdom! I've finished my annual alterations on my blog so that they are more suitable for this wonderful, spooky season.

So lets get right into it, shall we?

What creepy activities have I jumped into to start the celebrating of the spook season? Well, I've been playing....

Red Dead Redemption: UNDEAD NIGHTMARE - This is neither a sequel or prequel to the old west, open world, shoot 'em up, Red Dead Redemption. This is more of a "What If" story that ponders the notion, "What if the old west suffered from a sudden outbreak of a zombie plague?"

Lead protagonist, John Marston finds his safe and sweet, rancher lifestyle torn to shreds as the nearby township of Blackwater is infested with the flesh-eating undead. This sets him on a open world journey throughout the old west to try and find a cure as well as survive.

The game features the same map and locations that the original Red Dead did, but most townships and ranches are zombie filled and burning to the ground. You have to guide Marston through the countryside and either avoid or kill off hordes of zombies while taking on a whole slew of missions. You'll be expected to cleanse graveyards, hunt sasquatch, capture the four horses of the apocalypse, clear towns of zombies as well as taking on the main story's quest missions.

The game play is pretty much the same with a slight survival horror twist. There are thousands of zombies in this game and ammunition is not as plentiful as it was in the last game. In fact, one of the only places you'll find it is off of the bodies of zombies that you have dispatched. Not all zombies carry ammo. Just the ones who have gun belts on them. Sometimes you get rewarded with ammo after completing a mini-mission, but there are no working stores to exchange items for money. So whatever ammo you get, consider yourself lucky. Sometimes you have to decide if it's going to be fight or flight when confronted with a brood of zombies on the road in front of you when you're low on ammo.

There's also a little more strategy involve when taking out oncoming zombies. In grand zombie folklore tradition, the only way you can completely kill a zombie is a good, solid head shot! This can be made a little easier when you use the "quick shot" feature which slows down the scene and lets you set well aimed shots. However this only lasts for so long and has to recharge after its use. This can be detrimental when more zombies are coming at you. You have to figure out if you want to run from them as you quick-shot meter builds back up or if you want to aim out the shots on your own, real time. You can also shoot them in the legs and lower extremities to slow them down and allow you to take better aim. Either way, there's a distinct possibility that you will become zombie chow.

Some of the frustrating control issues have not been fixed from the last game. You'll find yourself circling a dead zombie carcass over and over again until you find the right angle where the game lets you search the body for ammo. And of course there are times when you are running from zombies and you easily make the mistake to put your character into the crouch position rather than continue running which is always a ton of fun when you have a few zombies on your back.

Despite these control issues, the game is a ton of wicked, spooktacular fun! The creepy atmosphere, gallows humor and zombie hunting more than make up for the slight frustrations. The game is also priced pretty frackin' nicely for the amount of content that's there.

If you are a zombie fan and like tales of the old west as well as open world game play, this is a must buy!

I'll keep this introductory Halloween season post short. I have to start plotting on what poor souls I'm going to try and drag to a Haunted Attraction this year. I hope you all get to take on some fun autumn and Halloween activities this season!

Zangz.

"I'm a loner, Dottie."

2011-09-06T11:53:00.011-05:00

- Pee Wee Herman, Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

In the wild world of video gaming, multiplayer and co-op seem to be the big main draw to bringing in common folk who wouldn't usually be into the video game scene. These functions have popularized the gaming industry by leaps and bounds as well as making it a lucrative competitor to the likes of Hollywood film studios. In many ways it has helped catapult the geek cultural renaissance we've been having over the last few years.

Being able to get online and shoot it up with a bunch of people from all over the world seems like it would be an entertainment draw for the likes of myself. But, to tell you the truth, online gaming with others takes away from many aspects of why I love video gaming to begin with.

For example.....

A. Gaming with a bunch of kids is, simply put, a colossal pain in the arse. Immaturity seems to run rampant throughout online gaming. Whether it be silly, vulgar insults or cheating during competitive game play, it kills the joy of pure competition.

B. Even if you're playing with people you know and trust who are on an equal maturity level as you are, there's always going to be that one person, THAT ONE PERSON, who has traversed the game level over and over and over again before you've gotten acquainted with it. He or she knows every nook and cranny and has found several wonderful spots to hide and snipe at you so every time you get killed by them and regenerate, BLAMMO!!!, head shot. You're dead again.

C. You tend to lose out on the wonderful experience of exploration and discovery. I lean toward huge, epic, open world games. I like to experience a game that really puts you in a virtual world where discovering new places is a major feature of the game. When you're forced to rely on other people in the game, you're pulled away from you own quest of discovery.

D. Having to rely on other players and when or if they want to play or even finding the time for everybody you want to play with at a given moment can be just as intricate as transposing a Frank Zappa song.

E. I'm a selfish bastage when I play. I want to do things on my own time. Do I want to take path "A" or path "B"? It should be up to me and nobody else. If I make a mistake or choose unwisely, I should be the only player who suffers the consequences.

So there you have it. I'm a loner gamer and have no problem with it. And as a loner gamer, I'm looking forward to the onslaught of cool as frack releases that will be popping onto game shelves within a years time.

1. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: 11-11-11 is the release date for this open world, fantasy and action filled lovefest. It's predecessors, Morrowind and Oblivion, have proven themselves to be some of the greatest games ever released. Here's how geeked out I am over the game. I plan to pre-order it within the next few weeks, go to the midnight release and take the day off. I've NEVER done anything like that for a video game, ever! For Skyrim, I'M DOIN' IT!!! You can view a preview of the gameplay as demonstrated by game lead, Todd Howard if you click HERE.

2. Saints Row, The Third: The first Saints Row game was criticized for being another open world, crime sim, GTA clone. And it pretty much was. But, where the GTA series has a good dose of frustrating "throw the controller at the TV screen" moments, Saints Row leaned more toward fun. They took that feeling even further in Saints Row 2. This upcoming installment will push the fun factor to the limit with crazy weaponry that includes a vehicle that sucks up pedestrians and shoots them out of a cannon, a satellite from which you can call in missile aerial strikes on rival gangs and a hand held...um...well...this weapon has me going "WTF?" I tried to find a preview to link to that wasn't as controversial or adult orientated as the game is. I couldn't. So, if you really, really want to see some game play, search it out on YouTube yourselves. But be sure not to do so at work or where children are present. If you work at a day care facility, you're really screwed.

3. Borderlands 2: More of the same shoot 'em up, loot 'em up gameplay as the first Borderlands? YES, PLEASE!! A good mix of RPG looting and character building while shooting up baddies with a massive amount of weaponry to choose from on a desolate Road Warrior-esque planet can't go wrong. Can it? Methinks not! To see a way too quick first trailer of the game, click HERE.

4. Mass Effect 3: THE greatest sci-fi RPG to grace the video game world since Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Not only is it a great RPG, the story line is incredibly captivating. This will be the last of the trilogy where we will see if our Commander Shepard can save both the Earth and universe. See the trailer HERE.

5. Dead Island: Upon hearing about yet another zombie shoot them up, survival game, I thought it would be a dull version of Dead Rising or Left 4 Dead. Well, I just went over a number of reviews and all of them were pretty impressed with the game. It turns out to be a RPG / open world / survival horror hybrid taking place on an island resort that goes to hell in a hand basket when a zombie outbreak takes place there. Zombie killin' and RPG mechanics?Me likey!! To watch a blood and gore soaked preview, click HERE, but don't do it at work or with kids around. I guess if you work at a day care facility, you'd be really screwed.

6. RAGE: More post-apocalyptic action and adventure in id Software's predecessor to it's other first person shooter games, DOOM and Quake. These guys are the originators of FPS gameplay and god knows they've had quite a while to work on this puppy. How can this go wrong? No Duke Nukem Forever jokes, please. There's a look at a preview of the game HERE.

That's a good cache of games coming out soon. This is the first time in a while where my wish list has been more than one or two games. I'd better start on that Xmas list pretty soon. Some of these titles are coming out this fall, if they haven't already.

And speaking of fall, my favorite, creeptastic holiday is right around the corner. I have already seen at least one Halloween store opening its doors. I'm already watching YouTube videos of Haunted Attractions around the country. More on that in a latter post closer to the season.

I think I'll end my latest entry here. Until next time, stay vertical!!!

Zangz.

Geeks & Podcasts. Our legions grow!

2011-08-03T12:05:00.003-05:00

We are the geeks of the world and we are growing and taking over the realms of New Media!

Within the last few years podcasting has grown in leaps and bounds. There are podcasts for every interest under the sun. Whether it be automotive, hobbies, pop culture, politics, or your mom, there is something for everyone. Go to iTunes and go to Podcasts and then do a search on whatever you fancy....BLAM! You'll find dozens of shows to choose from. It is the new wild west of New Media.

Obviously geek culture has more than just made its presence known in the podcasting world. The podcasts that cover the topics of the fantastical number in the thousands. Star Trek, Star Wars, Firefly, D&D, Video Games as well as Ghost Hunting are all strongly represented in the podcast realms. It's probably a small part of the reason I've been sorrily neglecting my blog this year.

As you know, I've gone and bought myself an iPhone and spend a little too much time on it than I should. The iPhone has been my introduction to iTunes and other media related programing. iTunes brought me the wonderful world of geek podcasts that occupy a good dose of my time.

There was a time that I had my own Podcast, Zangz's Pod of Geekdom. It was started back in the day when Podcasting was just starting to get really popular. If you get a chance to listen to the shows you'll see they are a wonderful documentation of the progression of a fledgling podcast.

We started out trying to use Skype that worked like pure crapolla on a dial up modem (Yep. I'm pretty low tech). Then we moved on by using telephones as microphones as the producer recorded remotely from his home fifty some odd miles away. We then found room in my producer's dad's office and I ended up recording in a broom closet there for sound buzzing issues. I was the idea guy who came up with most of the creative concepts of the shows and outlined them. Double-A-Man was the tech guru and producer who handled the engineering and all technical aspects of the show. As time went on the podcasts actually started to sound pretty darn professional. Especially when I'd get friends in round table discussions.

Sadly, logistics and problems with scheduling people and getting others involved proved to be the demise of Zangz's Pod of Geekdom. It would be great if one day we could resurrect The Pod of Geekdom, but we'd have a hell of a lot of competition.

There are a plethora of Podcasts that do Geekiness far better than I ever could. Here are a few that I follow regularly and urge you all to follow as well.

(Before you go downloading some of these, please realize that podcasts, thankfully, aren't censored. Free speech, baby! Might you have younglings in listening vicinity, you may want to use a headset. Many of these podcasts use adult language. You have been warned!)

Dovahkiin: An Elder Scrolls V Podcast - I nearly crapped myself with happiness when Todd Howard and his crew at Bethesda Games announced that the next Elder Scrolls open ended RPG video game, Skyrim, would be coming out on 11-11-11. Apparently I wasn't alone with the sudden case of happiness crapposity. These Elder Scrolls fans put together their own podcast that chronicles the progression of the coming video game. They also reveal any and all hints at what we might expect from the game. The faux background noises make it sound as though they are recording from one of the many pubs in the game world. Clever. They haven't updated in a few months and I'm hoping that is due to them being busy in the summer. With luck they'll be back in the fall with more info on what is to be one of the most epic games ever made.

Critical Hit: A Dungeons and Dragons Podcast - What's better than sitting down and playing a pencil and paper RPG with real, tangible polyhedral dice? How about listening to a bunch of guys playing one. The world famous RPG, Dungeons and Dragons, get the digitally live treatment as we get to hear D&D game sessions being played by a bunch of gamers. Sounds too geeky for you? Give it a try and lose yourself in their game world.

The Game Informer Show - Being a very choosey video game player, I have to have a good idea of what a game has to offer before I dump $60 on it. This is why I subscribe to Game Informer Magazine. It helps me navigate through what I might find fun or what I need to avoid. The magazine has its own podcast that features editors and writers from the mag putting their two cents on everything from reviews to previews of games as well as the state of the business side of the gaming industry.

The Geekbox Radio Podcast - Definitely one of my favorites of the bunch. This is usually a roundtable discussion on the past week's geeky happenings. Video games, genre TV shows and movies are bandied about between a round table of gamers and genre fans. I love the casualness of this one. It mirrors what me and my geek friends would talk about if we were all sitting around shootin' the dren.

SuperGeeks Podcast - If you can stomach the often cheesy opening skit's goofball humor, you'll be treated to wealth of comic book movie knowledge. All things Superhero-tastic on the big screen are discussed in this little gem of a show. It's quite obvious these guys have a mad love for comic book inspired movies and TV shows.

20 Sides of Nerd - This podcast reviews both video and role playing games as well as getting into a lot of reviews on up and coming technology.

The Nerdist Podcast - Rarely do I keep a podcast saved to my iPhone after I've listened to it once. I usually delete it and download the latest in the series. Not so, with The Nerdist. I currently have 14 episodes of the show saved to my phone. Even though I've listened to each one more than once, I find myself going back and listening to them again and again. Comedian Chris Hardwick (Singled Out, Web Soup, Attack of the Show) and his buddies take a improvisational comedy, roundtable approach and seamlessly mesh it with tons of nerd sensibility. Dare I say it, they almost make being a nerd or a geek hip.

Whether they have celebrity guests or are just chatting with eachother, I have found myself laughing out load with my earphones on. In fact I was mowing my mom's lawn the other day while listening to The Nerdist when I looked up and saw a passerby look at me like I was out of my mind. It was then I realized that I was laughing my ass off out loud. Then there are the guests! They get a whole cornucopia of interesting people that cover stand up comedians to genre celebrities. From Patton Oswalt to Neil Gaiman, from Matt Smith to Kevin Smith, from Craig Ferguson to Nathan Fillion. They all show up in one cast or the other. This is the podcast I highly recommend over all others!

There are a few more I've downloaded, but haven't checked out yet. I'll let you all know how they are once I have given them a listen.

So, there you have it. Start downloading these beauties onto whatever mobile media player you carry.

Until next time, stay verticle!

Zangz.

My new found respect for "The Sound of Music".

2011-05-14T11:26:00.004-05:00

First, a few apologies.

1) Yep. This year is going to be a little anemic for posting here. I've been suffering from a bad bout of Brain Drain as well as a severe lack of imaginative inspiration.

2) This post is going to come off a little sappy, not a motif this blog usually dwells upon.

3) This post has little to do with any geekines.

4) I'm doing this from my smart phone while at a Starbucks and haven't figured out how to hyperlink text. So wiki or google terms and titles you don't get. The spellcheck is a little wonky also, and you all know my lack of spelling skills.

Now that that's all out of the way, I can tell you that something pretty frackin' cool happened to me a few weeks ago. I became "Uncle Zangz" when my sister gave birth to my niece, "Lil' G". And I'm pretty stoked about being a first time uncle. I get to hang out and enjoy the cuteness and as soon as the screaming or bodily functions that newborns spring out on us start to hit the fan, I can hand her off to Mom, Dad or Grandma. No fuss, no muss. A luxury most of us single uncles and aunts are blessed with.

Anyhow, I recently had a wonderful experience involving me new niece that put a bit of a lump in my throat.

Before I go on with the story I have to emphisise how I previosly had a strong dislike for the classic musical film "The Sound of Music". First off, I loathed how saccharine and silly it came off as being. I mean the movie starts out with a goofy singing nun flailing around out in the mountains of Austria wailing away about "The hills being alive with the sound of music...". I mean, c'mon!

Then there were the Von Trapp kids. These kids were so Goody Goody that the Brady kids could have beaten the living crap out of them. When they weren't whining about something, they were breaking into song every five minutes.

One of the main reasons I had a grudge against the film ist that when my sister was a kid and I was away from the house she decided to watch the movie on my Betamax machine. The tape got jammed in the heads tearing them to shreds leaving the piece of video history a useless hunk of junk. Not cool.

The film seemed th plague me ever since. I was forced to watch it everytime we went to visit my Grandpa in the nursing home since it would be playing on the big TV in the main room to placate the residedents who hardly new where they were half the time. Up until recently that movie reminded me of watching my Grandpa slowly slip away into dementia didn't help it's popularity with me in the least bit.

Yet for some reason my Mom and Sis would force me to watch it every Easter when it is played on the Family Channel annually. This past Easter was no exception. I was able to make a deal. If they were going to have that on, I should be able to tool around with my new smart phone without any complaints. Surprisingy they agreed.

So as I downloaded nerdy- geeky podcast after nerdy-geeky podcast I tolerated the Von Trapp's caterwauling in the background. Lil' G was in attendance gurgling and moving around as newborns do.

At one point my Mom was holding her and that's when it happened. The song "Edleweise" came on and my Mom started rocking Lil G and sang it to her. My Mom is no singer by any means, but something about this hit me like a rock in the chest.

The whole vision put a great big lump in my cold hearted Sound of Music hating heart and cleared all the animosity I had for the film away in one magic moment.

I hid the swell of emotion from the others in the room and sucked up any tears that may have been welling up. I realized that from this moment forward "The Sound of Music" would no longer represent broken Betamax machines or old folks homes. I would now bring emotions of family love and the birth of my niece and the sweetness of a Grandmother singing to her grandchild.

Now I can tolerate the film. I can probably even watch it without any nausea. Sometimes it truly is the little special moments in life that can make a difference.

Told you this was going to be sappy.

Until next time, Doe.... A deer... A female deer.......Beeeeeoootches.

Zangz.

New weapon of mass destruction!

2011-04-12T17:49:00.002-05:00

I've added a new weapon to my arsenal of on line machinations of doom!
I've gone mobile. I now can control the Blog of Geekdom from my brand spakin' new smart phone. I am doing so now. Fear me, beeeoootches!!!!

More to come.

Zangz

Note to my Lack of Normal Sleep patterns: Tanks for the Oddball Dreams!

2011-03-25T19:56:00.011-05:00

....and I do mean "Tanks".

This long, cold winter is truly sucking the life out of me. Well, it's both the weather and a huge workload pit that just gets deeper and deeper every day. It's great to be busy and employed in these trying times, but my mental and physical exhaustion is on overdrive. Pile on top of that the fact that my sleep patterns are pretty topsy-turvy.

Here's how a typical workday evening works for me....

I get home anytime between 6 PM to 8 PM. I hop on the computer and check email and do a little social networking to catch up on everybody.

I then grab something to eat and watch some TV anywhere around the 8 PM to 9 PM hours.

Usually by 9:30 PM I'm out cold on the sofa. I wake up anytime between 10 PM and 11:30 PM when I hustle my butt into bed and fall asleep within minutes of my head hitting the pillow.

I then wake up from some odd, crazy dream at around the 2:30 AM to 4:30 AM hours and from then on to about 5 AM I try and fight off stressful thoughts about work and other things going on in my life. I usually get one more good half hour of sleep before my alarm goes off at 5:30 AM to get into work before 7 AM. Not fun.

And speaking of odd and crazy dreams, I had a whopper of one just the other morning. It started off with me in the backyard of my childhood home. I was looking into the backyard of our elderly next door neighbor's house and noticed that someone had left a huge army tank back there. My neighbor's house had been abandoned since her death (in my dream anyways). Time seemed to pass for months and nobody from the army or special services or the CIA had come to either claim or pick up the tank.

So after a while I decided to see if I could operate it. I hopped my fence and climbed up to the hatch and found that I didn't need to climb into it to drive it since there was a control panel that stuck out from the side of it.

Of course there was a big red button on the panel and I just had to push it to see what would happen. The thing fired a shot with the most bizarre results you could imagine.

It made a beeping sound that got faster and faster when it finally fired out a canon ball that flew high into the air for a while before it plummeted to the earth and landed with a huge thud and rumble into the next yard. In the dream I could feel the vibration in my feet when the ball hit the earth. There was no explosion, just a lot of dirt and dust after the impact.

I looked around hoping that no one noticed. After a short time I realized that nobody came out of their homes to see what the hubbub was all about. So, what would any self respecting person who cared about his neighbors and safety of others do in a situation like this? Try another shot!

I pushed the red button again. And again a canon ball shot high into the air and landed with the exact same thud and rumble as it did before.

Now I was real paranoid that the CIA or the Feds would come and get arrest my ass and question me on why I had not reported the abandoned tank months ago when I first noticed it.

As my fear in the dream grew, I woke from the slumber only to continue to stress out. But, not due to the whole canon ball firing tank dream, but from what was going to be expected of me at work that day.

Well, what can you do? At least there are some activities that can get my mind off of things during the weekends.

Within the last six months my gaming group has ventured into The Savage Worlds of Solomon Kane. This tabletop RPG is based on the writings of pulp visionary Robert E. Howard who's best known for his creation of Conan the Barbarian. But, before he created the world famous Cimmerian barbarian warrior, Howard brought us the adventures of the 16th century puritan avenger who traveled the world hunting down evil doers and mythical abominations with musket and sword in hand. There's a European movie that is just itching for an American release based on the Character. See trailer HERE!

The game has proven to be a lot of fun and is well run by my game master, Mad Mario.

I'm also plowing through Fallout: New Vegas as you may have guessed if you read my last post.

Catching up on episodes of Entourage is quite relaxing, even if the shows creators seem to have great disdain for those of us bathed in the geek culture. Check out the episodes revolving around the Aquaman movie and the San Diego Comicon from the 2nd season and you'll get an idea.

Where's the geek lovin'? Pretty much everywhere else. A lot of Hollywood is very much aware of our presence and power and are catering to our likes as best they can.

Hell, even David E. Kelley is trying to reboot and resurrect a Wonder Woman TV series. I've seen a picture and I'm hoping he doesn't give the series the Alley McCraptastic treatment and truly makes Wonder Woman a kick-ass broad, not some whinny-assed, lovelorn dingbat (errr.. nothing against Mrs. Indiana Jones).

Cross your fingers folks.

I'm done ranting for this evening. Go get yourselves a cold one for the weekend.

Zangz.

Finally back....and now for something completely different!

2011-02-18T18:18:00.007-06:00

"The road under my feet is cracked and torn beyond repair. The sand on either side of me is endless and has seeped it's way into every crevice of my leather armored clothing ever since I managed my way across what's left of the states to the far west.

I was a child when it all went to hell. The war that was waged was a quick one, but no one was a winner. It left what was once called the United States of America a vast wasteland of ruined buildings and twisted highways where we survivors try and make a life for ourselves.

Many find work as traders. Others find work as farmers. Sadly, others join gangs and wreck havoc as bandits. I've found my personal calling as a mercenary for hire.

Need me to hunt down a group of bandits who have done you wrong? I'll do it. Do you need someone to find a specific item that is in a cave full of wild, undead dogs? I can get that for you. Do you need me to relay a message to someone in another township? Consider it done. For the right amount of bottle cap currency, I can make it happen. But if you're going to ask me to inflict harm on the innocent, I'm more likely to put a bullet through your head. It's hard to have morals in this world, but I have my own code I live by.

I've been walking this highway for what seems like weeks heading out to the town of New Vegas to search for a guy who shot me in the head a while back. Luckily he wasn't the best shot and I survived. Too bad for him 'cause he has one hell of a comeuppance coming his way. But, that's a tale for another day.

Right now my main concern is how I'm going to deal with the family of radscorpions that are blocking my way down the road. Rumor has it that before the nuclear war, these things were tiny little creatures that were the size of your hand. Now they're the size of a friggin' horse. And there are five of them up ahead of me.

I was stung by one not too long ago and it took weeks to recover. Lots of puking, crapping, blindness and dizzy spells for about a months time. If I hadn't gotten to a small town doctor right after the attack, I would have been a goner.

I'm going to squat down and move silently around them. Perhaps I can take shelter behind that dilapidated gas station to the side of the highway if I can be quite enough.....

CRAP! They spotted me. These mother's are quicker than the ones I encountered on the east coast!

I pull out my sniper riffle that I aped off of the dead body of a militia man a few months ago. I take aim and make a direct hit into the head of the first radscorpion coming my way.

Sod! It did little damage to the thing! These guys are far worse than the east coast buggers, for sure! I take another well aimed shot.

The prick is still bearing down on me with his brood just behind him! Time for some evasive maneuvers! I get up from my crouch and start bolting down the roadway in the opposite direction. They're right on my tale. I pull out a frag grenade and whip it behind me.

KAPOW!

I look behind me and see that they're a bit stunned. I whip out my shot gun since I'm close enough and unload one into the head of the leader and finally his six beady eyes explode and he falls limp.

I then take out my machine gun and let the other bastards have a spray of lead lovin'. Another two go limp. But, as I have to reload, the last two take chase of me again. I turn tail and once again run the other way.

As I run I try and reload the weapon, but it is old and heavily used and has been modified one too many times. I toss it aside and whip out the shotgun again. I turn around while running backwards and try and take a few more shots.

Luckily these two radscorps aren't as big as the others I took out and one explodes into a few pieces leaving one left.

He's on me pretty quick, but his stinger missed my leg by inches, giving me enough time to plant the head of my shotgun to it's head and let loose.

KAPLAMMO!

Now there's radscorpion guts all over my leather armor. Crap.

I pull out my blade and gut out its poison gland. Those can sell quite well with certain traders. I walk back up the road and gut out the others' glands as well. I figure I have well over 70 bottle caps coming to me for these glands. Not too shabby. On top of that I find a fresh dead body that they must have been feeding off of before they took to me. This poor bastard had a few bottle caps, a shotgun that I can use to modify and repair my used one with and a cool as hell helmet that will give me some more protection. I may have "a code", but this is survival, baby. He doesn't need this crap anymore.

I head back up the road toward New Vegas. Luckily, there's no time frame to worry about. My prey seems to be enamored with one of the casinos in that rebuilt Sodom and Gomorrah. He isn't going anywhere.

I'll probably take on a few more jobs along the way before I reach my main goal. I'm wishfully hoping that there will be fewer encounters with the creatures that happen to exist in this wasteland. Outside of the radscorps, I've come across zombie like ghouls, warring fascist factions, mutants and all sorts of odd and deadly creature.

This world is full of nonstop surprises and I have a feeling I'm going to encounter every single one of them.

Crap."

Ok, so if you haven't guessed it by now, I've been playing a ton of Fallout: New Vegas and finally found myself inspired.

I understand that its been been almost two months since I've posted anything here. You have to understand that the dark cold winter mixed with a relentless work schedule has sucked any and all of the creative juices right out of me. I haven't been at all inspired to do anything imaginative.

So what's going on with me? Well, first and foremost I'm going to become an uncle come April! My sister, Dizzy Lizzy, done and got herself all preggered up. So I'll be geeking out with a wee little one who'll I'll further refer to as G-Love within the next few months. Cross your fingers and send good vibes my sister's way for a healthy, sweet little one.

What am I listening to right now? I'm always glad you asked? It would be what is, so far, my favorite album of the year.... Social Distortion's Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes.

A darn good, hard rockin' epic with a nice touch of bitter sweetness to make it that much special.

I hope to pop up here more often than I have recently.

Enjoy the weekend!

Zangz.

Christmas Eve Morning with Blood and B00bs.....

2010-12-24T09:52:00.012-06:00

It's X-Mas eve morning and I'm finally done with all of my holiday chores. All gifts are purchased and wrapped.

Tonight I head to my sister's place where my family will eat a nice dinner, followed by driving around looking at the neighborhood's' lights and decorations, then we'll head back and exchange gifts. Tomorrow we all head to my cousins place to eat drink and be merry. It is the final reward for a week long battle fighting off hordes of idiotic shoppers while trying to find those perfect gifts.

While wrapping the last of my gifts this morning I popped in a rented DVD of the cable TV series Spartacus: Blood and Sand that I watched while I absolutely crucified the art of using wrapping paper. Over the last few years I've grown accustomed to renting TV series that I miss out on when they originally air due to bad timing or not having the premium cable channel in my already overly expensive cable set up.

I'll get back to Spartacus in a minute, but I'd also like to touch upon some other jems I came across and would definitely suggest to someone who enjoys watching intriguing television.

Deadwood - I've raved about this Wild West TV show which aired on HBO years ago in past posts. But, one can never boost the popularity of what I feel is the greatest TV western to grace the small screen since The Wild Wild West.

Deadwood takes you back to the days when people were settling out west and the small town of Deadwood, South Dakota was fighting off inevitable domestication and still clinging on to being a gambling, whoring, booze ridden hole of depravity and sin. Leading the charge of depravity and sin is local "businessman" Al Swearengen, brilliantly played by Ian McShane. Swearengen has become one of may favorite TV characters despite the fact that he is pure scum. How McShane actually has you rooting for the villain towards the end of the series run proves that the Golden Globe her received for the role was well deserved.

The dialog of the whole show is spoken in what I like to call "vulgar Shakespearean". There is a very formal cadence to the way the characters speak, intermixed with a lot of "F" and "C" bombs being dropped every few seconds. It's not a show for the faint of heart as it depicts the depravity and violence of the old west in graphic detail.

The entire ensemble cast are all incredibly dedicated to humanizing their characters and there isn't a "phoned in" performance in anyone in this show. Sadly the show stopped dead in its tracks after the 3rd season, so there is little resolution to the stories being told. But, it is well worth your time if the kiddies are away for a weekend or two.

ROME - It took me awhile to get into this sword and sandals drama about the ancient Roman empire. It's another show that's very adult in nature. This show featured several stories interweaving in and out of each other. One storyline followed the adventures and friendship of two Roman Centurion soldiers. Another storyline covered the corruption and power of the Roman Senate during the fall of Julius Caesar. In yet another storyline we see a rich and powerful family try and grasp and claw for their status among the elite. Excellent writing and fine acting are the benchmark of this show.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand - More like Spartacus: BOOBS & BLOOD! This is an INSANELY adult oriented view of ancient Rome that is far more geared for the Fanboys than any drama loving historian. This series follows the hardships of the infamous gladiator character of Spartacus, originally portrayed by Kirk Douglas in the classic film. This time around the story is being somewhat reinvented and told in a serial format.

Much like in the series ROME there are power struggles and manipulations of the wealthy portrayed here. But the corner stone of this show is the abundance of computer animated gore which is a constant in every episode. The gladiator arena scenes are always filled with fountains of blood as someone is being struck by a sword.

Another factor of the show is there is overt nudity and sex everywhere. Much of the time the story is overshadowed by the shock factor. But for the fanboys in all of us, this series has to be seen to be believed, especially with the likes of Lucy Lawless and Erin Cummings presence in the show.

Fringe - When this first started to air I, unfortunately and misguidedly ignored it, assuming it was going to be no more than a poor man's X-Files. But after deciding to catch up with it through rentals I've really become enamored with the show. It was a bit slow to get into, but after sticking in there for a few episodes, I became hooked!

In a nutshell, FBI agent Olivia Dunham teams up with a "mad scientist" and his recently reunited, former con-artist son to solve crimes and incidents that reach outside of a scientific range of simple explanation. One such storyline has them dealing with an alternate universe. That sort of thing.

I think that the main factor that turned me into a fan was actor John Nobel's portrayal of Dr. Walter Bishop. Dr. Bishop is a scientific genius who's specialty is Fringe Science. Along the way Walter experienced some horrible professional and personal losses that rocked his world to the core and put him into a mental institution. Having been released by Agent Dunham and his own son he works with them under their custody.

To my recollection, Dr. Walter Bishop is the first character in a Sci-Fi / Fantasy genre that deals with mental health issues that is portrayed positively. This is where Nobel's portrayal really shines. You do not see Walter as a mad man or crazed lunatic. He is a caring, loving person who simply does not function in, or see the world the same we do. His observations are either delivered in grim straight forwardness or creepy exuberance which can lead to some good chuckles at times. He has a childlike quality that makes us want to reach out to him and protect him. He's becoming another one of my favorite characters on TV.

Warehouse 13 - Imagine, if you will, that the warehouse that is shown in the very last scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark actually existed. All of it's treasures and dark secrets that are locked within have to be protected by someone, right? This show is about two agents that are given just that task in a similarly imagined warehouse. Along with a few other oddball characters, agents Lattimer and Bering find themselves attempting to keep the inventory of Warehouse 13 safe and sound. But that's not an easy task when these powerful artifacts have a tendency to get out and have to be put back in or trouble will ensue.

This show isn't that much of a departure of the late 80's Horror influenced show, Friday the 13th: The Seires. But, instead of collecting cursed items in a creepy atmospheric peice, Warehouse 13 is more fantasy, and slightly, comedy driven.

This show is also far more family friendly than a lot of the other shows that are on my list. You don't have to worry about Little Tommy getting an eyeful of Xena's bare gazongas flapping about (not that there's anything wrong with that....ehem. I digress. I'm sooo getting coal in my stocking.).

I've only seen the first season and can't wait until I can find time to get a gander at season two which has already aired on the Sci-Fi channel. I may have to wait for DVD rentals again.

I'm enjoying catching up with these shows on DVD. I may review mare if I find the time. And speaking of time, I've wasted enough here for the day.

I'll leave you now with this thought,

Have a wonderful Christmas and enjoy whatever holiday you're into! Here's hoping it's full of family, food, fun, and warmth.

Zangz.

RINGing in the Holiday Season

2010-11-27T11:38:00.003-06:00

I know that traditionally I use the weeks after Halloween to bemoan the coming holiday season here in my blog. It's just the way people seem to go mad and turn their D-Bag meters onto full tilt during the season that really gets to me. Just try and go to one store or mall and not have some jerk-wit not do something rude or just plain stupid to you.

In any case, I'd like to start the holiday season off on a good note and tell you of a yearly tradition I've started with myself that helps me get through the holidays.

It all started in the winter of 2001. A upstart New Zealand filmmaker named Peter Jackson released upon the world a gift of geek greatness. It was the first of the film trilogy of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" fantasy stories called "The Fellowship of the Ring". It was followed up with "The Two Towers" in 2002 and "The Return of the King" in 2003 both being released right around the holiday season.

These spectacles brought back the feel of epic filmmaking that hadn't been seen since movies being made by the likes of Cecil B. Demille had graced the silver screen.

A few years later the movies were released on DVD in their basic form. I decided to hold out. I waited for the uber-awesome 4 disc directors cut, extended editions of each of the films and I'm very glad I did as they play a part in my new holiday tradition.

Within the weekends between Thanksgiving and X-Mas, I'll sit down with a bowl of chili, a couple of beers, some sodas, chips and dips in front of my TV set and watch one of the movies all the way through. Then I'll go through the documentaries that are included in each set. This usually takes an entire afternoon. But it is so wonderful. I'm not out in the cold trying to shop with the god-awfulness of the throngs of greedy yuppie culture knocking each other over to grab the newest fangled techno gift.

I'm snug and sound, warm and cozy with grub and beer and Frodo, Merry, Pipin, Gandalf, Gimli, Aaragorn and the whole Rings lot of them enjoying their adventures within Middle Earth. Not too shabby.

I suggest you all get the extended additions of the movie and take a few Saturdays in the cold of the holiday season and watch them. I'm sure they're available on Amazon or Ebay. They're well worth it.

On that note. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and enjoy the rest of the holiday season

Zangz.

Zangz's Early as Heck 2010 X-Mas Wish List.

2010-11-13T10:14:00.006-06:00

Every year my family members ask me what I want for X-Mas. Within the last few years I have gotten in the habit of putting the list up on my blog for a couple of reasons.

1. To be able to give family a concise list with linked examples so they know exactly what to get me without getting too confused.

2. To force them to actually visit and read my blog at least once a year. I need the hits.

3. A desperate need for some form of attention.

You may be asking, "Hey Zangz, why are you posting your X-mas wish list when we're barely out of the Halloween season?"

The few who read my blog know that the X-Mas season isn't really my favorite time of year for various reasons which I've blogged about in the past. And god knows that I'm already going through post Halloween DT's. But, last year my Mom and sister caught me completely off guard and demanded to know what I wanted for X-Mas a day before I planned to post my X-Mas wish list blog up (you can read about the whole sordid incident HERE). So this year I'm beating them to the punch.

I'm also making the print a little larger than usual because my mom complains that reading my blog gives her a headache due to the small type.

So, friends and family, get you pens and paper out and start jotting notes. Here we goes....

VIDEO GAMES:
Pleas note: All video games are for the Xbox 360.

Fallout: New Vegas - The quasi-sequel to Fallout 3. The first person RPG takes place in the post apocalyptic world that Fallout 3 was in. Except instead of traversing the wastelands of Washington DC, you're now exploring the semi-rebuilt tourist town of Las Vegas.

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare - Not to be confused with it's predecessor, Red Dead Redemption, this add on is a game pack for the original Red Dead. In non-gamer speak: it is extra missions not included on the original game that focuses on the wild west being infected by zombies. The add on disc will not be released until late November. Make sure you get the box with the DISC in it. Not the one that offers the game as down loadable content since I don't have my system hooked up to the Internet.

Fable III - The 3rd installment of the popular Fantasy game where not only is action a part of the game-play, so is managing your own Kingdom.

CLOTHES:

Cargo Pants - A couple more pairs wouldn't hurt. Finding the right size for me is the grand mystery.

Leather Winter Gloves - The ones I have are falling apart

OTHER:

Cologne - I haven't had a decent cologne in years. In fact the one I have is the "organic" one that my sister, Dizzy Lizzy, sold when she worked at Bath and Bodyworks. It's time for a change. I wouldn't know what type to get, though.

Surprise me - Do you think you know something you'd like me to have, but isn't on the list. Go a head. Knock yourselves out.

That's it. That's all there is for me. That's the list.

I gotta get my ass in gear since I just found out 30 seconds ago that I'm meeting some friends in Madison within the next couple of hours.

See ya.

Zangz.

Bobby the Bully.

2010-11-05T19:54:00.007-05:00

There's been a lot of hubbub in the media lately regarding bullying. A few young people have taken their own lives as a result of being bullied recently and now the media has jumped on the subject.

Even Hollywood stars are speaking out against bullying. There are news specials on the subject and students around the country are starting anti-bullying task forces at their schools.

I just have one question regarding all of this. WHERE THE FRELL WHERE ALL THESE ANTIBULLYING SENTIMENTS WHEN I WAS IN GRADE SCHOOL????

Seriously! From 3rd to 7th grade there wasn't a day that went by where I wasn't teased unmercifully or given a good smacking around by classmates. Both teachers and parents could have cared less back then. They were of a generation where a good beating would "build character".

Back in the day being a geek wasn't as counter culture cool as it is today. Back then being a kid who collected action figures rather than following professional sports teams wasn't exactly the cool thing to do. It got me into boatloads of trouble.

There was this one kid in my class who made it his main point in life to make sure I was miserable whenever he was in my presence. We'll call him "Bobby" in this post.

Bobby was a young, typical good looking, freckle faced, popular kid who all the teachers and students loved. He was good at athletics and was always the star player out on the blacktop. He also came from a, not rich, but financially comfortable family.

I started at the new school in the 3rd grade and Bobby, already being a fixture at the new school, took an instant dislike to me. I was gawky, had crazy curly hair, big goofy glasses and set of buck teeth that not only stuck out of my face, but had big gaps between them (I was a thumb sucker when I was a wee lad). On top of that, my Mom would always go way out of her way to dress me in the silliest looking outfits that usually included flood pants. I was cruising for a bruising the minute I first walked through that front door of that school.

I think I was starting to be pushed around within the first week. Bobby made sure that everyone else in the class disliked me and would follow suit in his abusive treatment of me.

The bullying lasted 3 years solid and had me at a point of severe depression and fear. I would wake up in the mornings wondering what was the purpose of waking up. I was only 10 years old for crssakes! I didn't understand the concept of suicidal tendencies.

On a daily basis I would have to calculate every move I made and everything I would say to avoid my classmates ridicule. Because no matter what I did, it was met with disdain. Even my best friend at the school would join in with the teasing and pummeling. It was pretty frackin' harsh.

A few short days before I entered the 7th grade and what was to be yet another year of torture from Bobby and his followers, we got the news that Bobby was hit by a car and died. No frack. The big assed beast known as karma came and reared her ugly assed head in a way that could only be described as the ultimate God Smack.

In the days and weeks that followed I didn't feel vindicated, I was far more blown away by the fact that someone my age could leave us in a split second. It wasn't until later in life that I felt a slight satisfaction in what all went down. But, now, as an adult, I feel for his family, but at the same time I wonder what 7th grade would have been like with him there. Would I have survived it?

Things got better in the years after. I was far less teased in grade school and in high school, though still an outcast, I found a good group of friends that I'm still close with.

So it's not just young gay people who are targets of bullying. There are plenty of us heterosexuals who are, or where, outcasts and targets and probably have an inkling of knowledge of what it's like to be different and not fit in.

It saddens me that people feel the need to end their lives at such a young age due to bullies. It got better for me. It can for them also. Unfortunately it's all about patience. Something the youth of today don't have.

And as for the bullies of the world, Karma is a big assed beeotch! A chance meeting with the front end of an automobile could be the cure to bullying.

Zangz.

Van Helsing's Curse- Haunted Attractions

2010-10-31T10:49:00.000-05:00

Bruahahahahahahaha.........

2010-10-31T10:19:00.005-05:00

Have a safe and spooky Halloween from Zangz's Blog of Geekdom!

Movie Reviews from the Grave Part Duex.

2010-10-30T10:51:00.004-05:00

Before we get to more of my Horror movie review buffoonery, I found that I actually got a comment from the performance group The M.U.T.E.S whom I mistakenly referred to as mimes in my review of their opening gig for the Night of the living Dead Puppet Show. Please see below......

Vine Pewter said...: Hi Zangz!

Thanks so much for giving The Marvelous Unspeaking Troupe of Entertaining Scoundrels aka The M.U.T.E.S. a shout out and we are glad you liked the show! I just want to clear up that we are NOT mimes! This misconception has haunted us from the beginning. We don't talk when we do our skits because the idea is that you are watching a silent movie live and we paint our faces white to add to the black & white effect. We do however use props-lots of them at times! We don't pretend that things are there that aren't. We just want to put that out there because so many people are afraid of or hate mimes. We don't want to lose potential fans because they avoid our shows thinking that we are mimes. Find out more about the nation's premiere silent film style sketch comedy troupe at themutes.com.

PS We audition for AMERICA'S GOT TALENT on Nov. 7 in Chicago!!

So there you go folks. I've been educated. My apologies for misconstruing what The M.U.T.E.S. are all about. I'd also like to thank Vine for actually reading and responding to my blog which will make Vine the third or fourth person to not only visit, but actauly acknowledge openly that they've visited my blog of geekdom! This makes Vine the #3 of the 3.5 people who've actually visited my blog!

Please keep your eyes open for their next performance since it's something quite original and fun! And good luck to the gang on their tryout for America's Got Talent!!

So on to just a couple of reviews from my Halloween / Horror movie viewing this season. I've saved the best of them for last.....

Paranormal Activity - Before everyone starts screaming "BLAIR WITCH CLONE" just hear me out. Yes, much like The Blair Witch Project, this movie is presented as home movie footage of unexplained events. And yes, the actors keep their real names in the movie. Admittedly, there's a lot to compare with Blair Witch. But, Blair Witch was an experiment that went wild and Paranormal Activity is more of a spawn from Blair Witch type film making.

It is shot from the point of view of a young couple who are experiencing odd happenings in their condo. The strange events seem to be focusing mainly on Katie, the girlfriend of Micha. In an attempt to document the strangeness, Micha, a day trader with a tendency to not listen to his girlfriend's warnings, buys a home movie camera and sets it up in their bedroom.

Through the eyes of the camera we witness the strange noises and bumps in the night that plague the couple as they try and sleep. At first the haunting is very subtle which helps turn up the creep out factor. As Micha becomes a little more obsessed with trying to document and provoke the "spirit" the entity becomes far more active and angry. At the pleadings of Katie, they decide to bring in a psychic who tells them that he doesn't think it's a ghost. He believes it's something far more sinister.

For whatever reason this drives Micha to try and provoke the entity even more while Katie becomes far more reluctant to mess around with it. You see how their relationship starts to fall apart and how the activity starts to get far more disturbing at the same time, leading up to the climatic ending of the relationship.

Compare it to Blair Witch all you want. I won't disagree. I will say that I found Paranormal Activity to be even more creepy than Blair Witch. The scene in Blair Witch when they're in the tent and can hear little ghostly children laughing out in the woods creeped the the frack out! Well, paranormal Activity has scenes that trump that! I found myself pausing the movie to look down my darkened hallway to make sure there was nothing lurking down there during my viewing.

I really liked this flick. It focused on the "creep out" rather than buckets of blood and obnoxious teens getting sliced and diced. It's a nice breather from the usual fare. The prefect film for a cold, spooky evening. Best viewed in a dark room only lit by Jack-O-Lanterns! View trailer HERE!

Trick 'r Treat - Not to be confused with the hard rock influenced shlock fest from the 80's, this 2009 flick completely captures what a Halloween driven horror film should be. This anthology of horror revolves around a small town's Halloween festival where wondering if you have enough candy for the Trick or Treater's should be the least of your worries. Each little story saturates itself in gallows humor and usually leads into the next little vignette until the stories come full circle. Undead spooks, werewolves, a serial killer and a nasty little phantom Trick or Treater all take part in the gory shenanigans of the holiday festivities. I really loved this movie, if for nothing else, the whole spirit of Halloween is always present! View trailer HERE.

That's it for today. I'm off to help put up a giant inflatable Haunted House for my Friends' kid party. Before I leave you, keep in mind, tonight is Halloween Eve, be sure to close the windows and lock the doors. The dead can be pesky SOB's.

Zangz.

Undead Puppets and other Halloween Hijinx.

2010-10-29T09:25:00.008-05:00

The old Oriental Movie Theater holds court over the pub scene of my town. It stands vigil over the city streets, adorned with spiral towers that hint at it's Asian motif.

Within it's walls visitors are taken back in time when going to a movie was a real event. There's a grandiose staircase leading up to the balcony. Within the main theater statues of Asian deities watch over the crowd from the walls. It is probably this city's most beautiful landmark that hearkens back to more easy going times.

But, there's also something slightly sinister about the place. It's almost as if there's something watching from behind the curtains and corners of the old establishment. Something no longer living.

There are ghost stories about the place. I knew one girl who said she saw a "shadow person" in the women's' room. Other tales of netherworldly visitors who lurk about the theater are told in hush voices.

Last night I was at the theater and experienced a far different form of undead entity. Zombies! Not just any type of zombies....PUPPET ZOMBIES!!

A performance troupe known as Angry Young Men Ltd have been putting on a puppet show version of George A Romero's Zombie classic, Night of the Living Dead (I'm not going to Wiki link all of that since I've been doing so in the last few blog posts) for a few years now. I first heard about it last year at the now defunct ZombieconX. I didn't get to see the show but I heard it was quite funny.

When I heard they were coming to the Oriental Theater to do their show, I went down to the box office and bought me a ticket!

The next night was the show and I had arrived there just in time. The line was large but moved quickly once they opened the doors. To say that it was a good turnout would be an understatement. It ended up being standing room only for a few late arrivals.

The show started with a puppet zombie host who had a Draculaesqe accent slinging one liners here and there and then introducing the opening acts. This is where the show became very reminiscent of the old Vaudevillian days of theater as a sideshow circus group, Dead Man's Carnival, and a very interesting mime group, The M.U.T.E.S., went back and forth with skits and tricks of daring do. I found the The M.U.T.E.S. particularly interesting since usually I REALLY.... HATE.... MIMES. The M.U.T.E.S. were something different entirely. Imagine an old black and white silent films from the early 1900's being brought to the stage. The skits were all fun, creative and quick....the only way I can like mimes.

Once they were through, out came the zombie MC again with more hilarity and then on to The Night of the Living Dead Puppet Show!

The puppets themselves were life size torso, cartoonish likenesses of the characters in the movie. They were operated with the puppeteer in full view, but draped in black to hide their faces. The show took the 90 minute movie and condensed it into 30 minutes of dark humor and puppet gore!

What is puppet gore, you may ask? The Angry Young Men used red fabric and red ribbons as blood splatter. At one point there were red ribbons flying everywhere with zombie puppet heads exploding after shotgun blasts! Yes, it was pretty awesome!

All of the main plot points and famous scenes were kept in the show. "They're coming to get you, Barbra" had new meaning when the poor girl is literally torn to pieces by flesh eating zombies. Even her puppet entrails were being gnawed on by undead puppets.

The show may have been short, but it was certainly sweet and brought forth a standing ovation at the end. Well deserved, I must say.

On to other Halloween news....

Sadly, I don't think I'm going to make it to any other haunts this year. Not enough interest from others and a tight schedule put a damper on my haunt attendance this year. But, in my own sad and pathetic little way I did get to "virtually" visit a few through the YouTube channel Hollywood Gothic.

Hollywood Gothic is run by a guy who lives in LA and visits as many local Haunted Attractions out there that he can. You can check out the website also HERE.

My Halloween weekend will be far from a total bust. Tomorrow I'm going to a family friendly Halloween extravaganza thrown by the wonderful DelAmorte's that will feature an inflatable Haunted House and lots of sweets.

Then on Halloween my family will get together and have a nice diner and watch a Horror movie.

Then the next day I immediately dive into seasonal effective disorder since I consider November 1st to be the first day of the 6 months of crap that is the Holiday and winter season. Yuck!

I'm hoping to do some more movie reviews and post tomorrow. We'll see.

Until the next time, make sure you do something spooky this weekend!

Zangz.

The Zombie Plague is Here and Strong!

2010-10-23T11:29:00.004-05:00

During Halloween seasons in the past, Zombies never got their fair due. You'd see vampires, werewolves, mummies, Frankenstein and ghosts decorate houses, appear all over TV and be represented in costume shops all over the place. But, there wasn't much adoration for Zombies.

Within the last ten years or so, this has drastically changed. Zombies are limping and shuffling their way into the higher echelons of pop culture.

In the beginnings of the Zombie mythology the walking dead seemed to originate out of Voodoo curses and superstition. It was far more paranormal and occult than what it has become today.

In recent years the Zombie origin in most media and print is usually some form of disease or virus that sweeps it's way across the globe at an alarming rate. First the plague would infect the living individual with flu like symptoms. Then the sickness would progress quite rapidly within the next hour or so until the individual would die. Within seconds or minutes of death that person would be resurrected as a mindless Zombie with only one thing driving them.....the hunger for human flesh. Primarily the living human brain!

Of course if someone is bitten by a Zombie the infection is transferred to that individual who will go on to become a Zombie themselves and will then bit someone else and so on, and so on and so on.

There's also the old toxic spill story where either some greedy, scientific corporation, or our own military accidentally unleashes some chemical somewhere and it starts to infect people as well as those that are already deceased.

Formulaic example: Greedy corporation+mysterious chemical that needs to be dumped somewhere+ graveyard = Zombies.

In any case, Zombies are "alive" and well and here to stay! A new horde of Zombie films are finding their way onto the silver screen within the last few years.

Zombie movie demigod, George A. Romero has released a few newer Dead movies recently. Danny Boyle's 28 Days /Weeks Later movies scared the living bejeezers out of moviegoers a few years back. We've also seen the comedic likes of Shawn of the Dead and last year's Zombieland receive critical acclaim.

Premiering this Halloween, AMC will be bringing the wonderful Zombie comic, The Walking Dead to cable TV. I'm jonesing out for that one!!

Check out the trailer.....

Most recently author Max Brooks has brought zombies into modern day literature. His dark humored The Zombie Survival Guide and the serious toned World War Z: An oral History of the Zombie War are bestsellers.

Which is a nice segue to the main part of this post. A book review.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War - I read this book on a nice relaxing weekend where some friends had rented a small lake house and invited me along. I pretty much dove into the book expecting it too be creepy tale that featured the eating of flesh and other gory visions. But, what I got was a lot more frightening.

Told as a series of interviews from those that survived a worldwide Zombie infestation, World War Z is far more a scary social commentary on how we, as human beings, may not be that much better than the zombie hordes. In many stories throughout the novel, we are our own worst enemies.

As the Zombie plague breaks out and spreads itself rapidly, humanity finds cut-throat ways to back stab and obliterate itself. Evil corporations find new ways to make money off of the tragedy while governments take holocaust-like steps to protect the elite. And that is the most terrifying thing about this book. It mirrors what may very well happen if some sort of international tragedy, such as a deadly virus, actually comes to fruition. As we humans are continuously tortured by big corporations and the politicians who help support these companies, it's easy to see where it would all end if the unthinkable would take place.

Max Brooks captures that image very well in these interviews (stories) that accumulate into one big vision.

Some may be disappointed that the Zombies themselves are pretty much there as a setting for the more social and political themes in this book, but there are some pretty good, edge of your seat, type stories here also. There's one about a military helicopter pilot who crash lands into a Zombie ridden swamp and is helped by a mysterious stranger.

I'm not much into sociopolitical books whatsoever, but throw in a heaping of Zombies and it isn't so bad.

If I were a poli-sci professor, I'd put it on the reading list for my students for sure!

Alright then, kiddos. I'd move onto other Halloween subjects, but I'm in a bit of a rut with having a low key Halloween this year. There was no ZombieConX this year and outside of watching a plethora of Horror movies, I've only visited one haunted attraction this year.

Once again we went to a local gun club's Fin and Feather Haunted Woods. They changed it up a bit this season. My favorite addition was the ghostly bride who followed you down the path with caged corpses hanging from the trees above your head. Creepy. The attraction ended on a bit of a downer when we ran into a bunch of monsters (teenagers) all mulling about in a large group just goofing off and having some form of conversation. At first I thought we took a wrong turn and were in a "backstage" area. Nope. It was just a bunch of young scare-actors standing around when they should have been in full on scare mode. I know help is hard to find, but I'm becoming less and less of a fan of letting teeny-boppers take part in haunts.

In any case, it was still a good time and I have one more weekend of Halloween bliss to try and con...er I mean drag....er I mean take someone to go with me to another haunt.

And with that a bid you all a fond farewell. It's supposed to be a full moon tonight, be sure to go out and enjoy the spirits and ghouls it will beckon.

Zangz.

Zangz's Horror Movie Reviews from the Grave....

2010-10-09T10:30:00.010-05:00

.....I dare you to come up with a more generic and lame post title than that!

Hello, fellow fans of fright and the wonderful Halloween season! The colors are coming into their own and allowing the early morning and late afternoon sun to blaze across them giving them blinding beauty. The pumpkins are invading the markets, Halloween decor is popping up in yards and the local Haunted Attractions are popping up all over the rural suburbs.

'Tis the season of ghosts and ghouls and I couldn't feel more rejuvenated because of it. In fact, on my day off yesterday, I did something I wouldn't usually do on a vacation day. Usually, I sleep in late and then get up and lay on the couch and watch horror movies. Before you know it, it's noon and I've wasted half a day. But, yesterday I got up as early as I usually do on a workday and went outside to watch the sun rise over the lake. The way it bounces off of the clouds on the horizon creating blues, oranges and reds is quite Autumnly spectacular!

I then walked on down to the local diner and gorged on a meal of Greek breakfast skillet. Good gosh-darn times, I tell you!

And since it is that spooktacular season there are a few annual events taking place right now. First we have the local Haunted Attractions running full force. I'm going to try hard to get to at least a couple this season. Perhaps next weekend. Stay tuned for a review.

Second, we have the annual Al's Run for the local childrens' hospital. It's a huge marathon that runs right down my street in front of my apartment every year. In fact I'm looking out the window and watching the participants running down the street right now, as I type this. At least I'm hoping it's Al's Run and not neighbors running from the oncoming, flesh eating zombie hordes! No one knocked on my door to warn me to get my skinny little butt running! Rat-Bastards!

Ehem....anyway. The third annual event is my Horror movie reviews here in my blog. So lets get right down into the thick of it, shall we....

Rob Zombie's Halloween II ("H2") - Rob Zombie is an artist I really dig. His live shows are theatrically Horror driven extravaganzas. His love of the Horror genre is infused within the music he makes and the movies he writes and directs. Rob, also, pulls no punches when it comes to controversial use of disturbing violence and gore in his flicks. So if you enjoyed the brutal non-stop blood fest that came from his first Halloween movie as well as, House of 100 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects, you'll know what you're in for.

I really enjoyed his first homage to John Carpenter's original Halloween (probably one of the best darn Horror movies of all time) but, only when I looked at it from the perspective that it is an homage (pronounced OHMAJ for you snootier types) rather than a reboot. In my eyes, he succeeds in the same way with H2, while at the same time, opening up a whole new avenue of telling the story of the cursed Meyers family. Rather than it being just a tale of poor Laurie Strode being stalked by her infamous serial killer brother, Michael Myers, it is also a twisted tale about the links between sister and brother and how you can never really escape family.

A lot of Carpenter / Halloween purists have decried a befouling of the series in Zombie's two interpretations of the first two originals. I can understand that if I were only looking at Zombie's works as reboots. But when you look at them as simply his homages and personal interpretations, you may enjoy them a lot better.

I didn't get into H2 as much as I did Zombie's first Halloween movie. Perhaps this was due to the fact that the first movie paralleled the first original Halloween movie much better and gave you more of a grounding for the story. H2 starts off like Carpenter's Halloween 2, but then ventures into it's own original plots and twists.

Once again Scout Taylor-Compton takes on the roll of Laurie Strode with a energy that I hope movie goers will get to see in many more movies to come. She's a force to be reckoned with. Keep an eye on her. And I don't mean that in a dirty-old-man kind of way either.

Again, Zombie's Halloween movies are great homages to the originals if you're willing to see them that way. If you're a purist, stick with Carpenter's originals.

View trailer HERE!

The Crazies - Another remake of an '70's classic. It's an interesting play on the zombie genre with a switch. Yes, there's a biological plague, but it is not turning the people of a small farm community into brain eating zombies. It is turning good natured town folk into creepy raving lunatics. And of course this movie gets a big boost with George Remero's finger in the frosting since he is executive producer.

I've enjoyed Timothy Olyphant's work since his strong as nails portrayal of Sheriff Seth Bullock on Deadwood.. Here he plays a sheriff whose town is falling pray to the virus changing his friends and neighbors into homicidal maniacs. He, once again, does a fine job of being the strong character amongst a metric butt-load of craziness.

The plague victims are a far cry from Remero's zombies. Unlike zombies these "people" don't mindlessly plod around looking to eat brains. They're a little more methodical in their endeavors. Instead of going for the jugular of their victims they lean more towards options such as locking their family in an upstairs closet, then dumping gasoline all over the house and then setting fire to the house and watching it burn to the ground. So there's a bit more of a sinister urge these folks have.

Of course the military and government are knee deep involved with the virus and they're just as much of a threat to the surviving townsfolk as the crazies are.

The movie does come with a good dose of stock, thriller trappings. But, I did enjoy this movie for what it is, a real good spook thriller.

View trailer HERE!

The Wolfman - This Victorian based horror movie is one I seemed to enjoy more than most. But, I'm a sucker for history based Horror such as Sleepy Hallow and Interview with a Vampire. There's something about the Horror genres that are told from historical times that seem far more creepy and spooky than those of modern day to me. And this movie has all of those old, creepy motifs well planted. A creepy crypt, some spooky bogs, dark forests and a huge, Gothic mansion all decorate this film. It definitely stroked my love of the macabre in a visual way.

However, I can see where it didn't make a big of a dent in the box office as was hoped. The plot is predictable and some of the acting was "called in".

Sir Anthony Hopkins is quite entertaining as the patriarch of a seemingly cursed family and dives into his role with great relish.

If you're into Gothic Horror it is something to check out. If your a slasher fan, there's plenty of blood and guts to satiate your gore-hound tastes.

View trailer HERE!

Deadgirl - This is probably the most disturbing zombie film I've ever seen.

It's not disturbing in the way The Exorcist keeps you up at night. It's disturbing because a couple of the main characters are valueless turds of human beings and their actions are unspeakable. And it's not a "zombie film" in the traditional way where there are loads of zombies taking over a small town. The film revolves around one main, young female zombie who spends much of the movie helplessly strapped to an old gurney.

The movie gets going after two high school burnouts are exploring an old, empty asylum. They come upon a forgotten back room where they discover the "deadgirl" strapped to the gurney. This is where things get pretty fracked up.

I'm not going into detail of what one of the burnouts spends much of the movie using the zombie for. Suffice it to say, he is king of all perverts. The other burnout goes back and forth with his conscience with the whole twisted situation and in the end he is no better than his pervo friend.

An interesting view on the zombie genre, but I think this is more of a Horror film for those that are into disturbing, art house, independent films. Not my cup of tea.

Jennifer's Body - I thought I wasn't really going to like this film. The Horror fan crowd didn't seem to jump onto this one. Megan Fox is perceived as being a one-trick eye candy actress and Diablo Cody's dialogue might seem trendy and clever for one movie (Juno), but in a Horror film it might be a bit overboard and over saturated.

But, for the most part, I dug it. It was a well told tale of two friends, one hot as hell and the other a bit nerdy, and how their relationship hits a pretty big snag when the hot one (Fox) becomes possessed by a demonic succubus and has to feed on the flesh of humans to keep her powers.

Fox does a fine job playing the hot cheerleader with a dark secret. And the dialog, while peppered with great Cody-isms, doesn't go too overboard.

This film took me back to movies like Heathers, a teen comedy with a real dark side.

While it's not very creepy, or scary it still has a good dose of blood and guts in it. There's also a bunch of real cool cameos and small roles that are fun to see in this film. J.K. Simmons, Amy Sedris and Lance Henrikson all pop up in various rolls.

A fun Horror flick to be sure, home skillet! View trailer HERE!

This is going to be it for me today. Don't be discouraged as I have a few more reviews coming within this eerie month of the dead. So stay tuned and stay vertical!

Zangz.

Into the Autumnal Dark Magic We Go....

2010-09-26T16:15:00.006-05:00

Well, folks, we can now honestly say that it is officially Halloween season! This past weekend my bro-in-law and I worked on his front yard decorations.

On Friday night we had to replenish his gravestone and "Grave Buster" supply due to the fact that he kept them up in the rafters of his garage during the off season and a mother squirrel decided that the box would be a great place to build a nest for her babies.

The squirrel family has moved on but left behind chewed apart fake corpses that appear to come out of the ground (Grave Busters) and torn apart Styrofoam grave stones.

One prop that we really needed to find was a fake black raven that sits atop one of the gravestones. This was missing from the chewed up box and we were wondering if the squirrel had eaten the whole thing or taken it with her. Crazy b*&%h squirrel!

So, on our travels on Friday night we scored some headstones and a grave buster at Walgreens. We then found some cool decorations at Target including a skeleton who's head, arms and legs pop out of the ground.

Our last stop would be the big, inflatable Jack-O-Lantern that houses a big Halloween Express store located in the parking lot of our state fair park. But once we got there we were met with a great shock. The giant inflatable pumpkin was gone!! The gates that would surround it were there, the rotating doors to get into it were there, but the big inflatable pumpkin store itself was gone.

The night before there had been some pretty strong winds and, as we learned later on, they tore down the store. This isn't the first time it has deflated. Some pranksters forced a hole in it one year and the next year another storm brought it to the ground.

We still had not found the raven. So we drove across town to another Halloween Express store and wandered through the place. Still no raven to be seen.

Luckily, yesterday my bro-in-law found a fake raven at a party store that has a lot of Halloween decorations.

So today we put together the little fake graveyard in his front yard. He also has some assorted pumpkin and ghost lights and a light up Halloween themed gateway leading up to the front porch. His house is all set.

I'll have to put my apartment into Halloween mode this week. I have gobs of stuff that I didn't use last year that will have to rise from the grave this season.

In other Halloween news, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark has returned to TV in El vira's Movie Macabre, a grand throwback to her original late night horror movie show from the '80's. The debut episode was Romero's Night of the Living Dead. You can't go wrong with Elvira and Zombies!

When I was a young lad I had a door sized poster of her taped to my bedroom door. It didn't need much tape to stick to that door, ifayknowwhatI'msayin'............(Eeewwwww).

I know, I know. It's a sick and sad, old joke, but I couldn't resist. Isn't Halloween supposed to be about things that give you the creeps.

A quick reminder to start locking your doors and boarding up your windows. For the season of the undead, ghouls and creepy crawlies has arrived!!!!

Before I leave I'd like to leave you with an example of some way cool Haunted Attraction props for this Halloween season.

Click HERE for a video of a Haunted Attraction convention. I want the gravestone that turns into an angel of death. It would take up my whole apartment and cost my entire savings, but I think I can swing it. Enjoy.

Until next time Stay Vertical!

Zangz.

Halloween Dreamin'

2010-09-17T19:11:00.009-05:00

Anyone of the two or three people who visit this blog know that I'm a Halloween addict. So I don't really have to tell you all that I'm already getting psyched for the season.

And the season is already rearing its wonderfully undead head around the corner as the Octoberfests hit the beer shelves and the Halloween costume and prop shops start popping up in malls and empty storefronts.

The days get shorter and the nights longer while trees start to spew out wonderful colors. Oddly the weather is still trying desperately to hold on to summer. That isn't a problem with me, but I do think we eventually need to get that chill in the air to summon the spirits and the dead so they can roam about during the most imaginatively driven holiday of them all!

My mindset has already put forth subliminal messages about how much I love the holiday. I had my first Halloween themed dream. Apparently I was living in this imagined apartment with my girlfriend (I'm a geek, I have no girlfriend and the apartment wasn't the one I live in now. It was one with lots of windows that looked over a park, a place that I've never come across in the woken world.) and we were getting ready for a Halloween party and dressing up in costumes. I was a zombie and she was a sexy vampire (I told you this was a dream). But, we kept getting interrupted by Trick or Treater's who kept ringing the doorbell as we were trying to leave for the party.

We had tons, upon tons, of candy for them, but didn't want to leave it at the front door after we left because we knew some nasty kids would just take the whole lot of it and leave nothing for the rest of the children. Finally we decided to put together a lifelike dummy of a zombie to place by the barrel full of candy to scare the kids into leaving enough for everybody. I woke up at this point.

Now when it comes to this "dream girlfriend" of mine, she wasn't any supermodel or anybody like Summer Glau or Shirley Manson or Olivia Munn or anybody like that. She wasn't even Katie Sackoff with a bubble bath scene.

She was a cute, short, brownish / blond haired, girl next door type who is completely unrecognizable to my awake self. So I have no idea where, subconsciously, she morphed from. Wishful thinking perhaps?

Well, that isn't the only Halloween themed dream that I had a part in. Apparently a co-worker (who I'll refer to a Rufus) had a dream where I appeared. We were at work and I was playing electric guitar really, really well ( I can't play a note to save my butt! I even suck at Rock Band!). I responded to him as such, "Well when you're a vampire, like myself, you have a lot of time on your hands at night and have to have something to do." (outside of all the blood drinking I guess).

Rufus knows too much and will have to be extinguished relatively soon. If there is anyone out there who is looking for work in an inventory department that has no problems working with people in the adjacent department being members of the undead, my workplace may have an opening soon.

Ok, so this Halloween season I can't really promise any reviews on local Haunts since I believe a lot of my co-horts are getting older and fed up with me dragging their asses to Haunted Attractions, but I will use my vampire charm to get somebody to go with me and do a review or two. One thing I do have is a lot of horror movies in my online movie club queue. I'll be doing a few reviews on them and will have some other things lined up to give you the shivers and shakes. I've already brought in the Halloween them into the blog for all of you. So, please enjoy.....

Here come the dead, kids. You better be ready.

Bru-ahahahahahahahahahahaha. (Thunder / Lightening).

Long live the dead!

Zangz.

RED or DEAD, The Marston Family Name has been REDEEMED.

2010-09-03T13:07:00.006-05:00

The old Wild West of America was going through a real odd transition stage around 1911. Slowly but surely the Victorian lifestyle was giving way to the age of industry. Covered wagons were being threatened to be replaced with automobiles. Trains were a far quicker and more comfortable method of transportation when compared to horseback. Technology was slowly starting to peek around the corner, but it had yet to completely wipe out the old west, cowboy hero archetype.

It is in this setting that Rockstar North, creators of the Grand Theft Auto series of games, decided the place their latest open world action video game, Red Dead Redemption.

The epic Western tale is set around a cowboy named John Marston. We start the game with John in a bit of a situation. John's outlaw past has caught up with him. We first see him being escorted by two federal agents (Pinkertons, perhaps?) to the Southwestern town of Armadillo (in a state which could quite possibly be California or Texas). The federals want Marston to hunt down his ex gang members and as a reward, the Feds will let go of his wife and son who they are holding captive. It's been quite a long time since John has seen anybody from that old gang. He's left those days behind and is trying to make good with his life by living off of the land as a rancher. But, now he seems to be thrown back into the world of violence and danger. It's up to you, as the player, to decide if he follows the path of the righteous or falls back down into the world of the outlaw.

And that's how Rockstar North starts you out and this epic, grand adventure. With "Redemption"being an open sandbox game, much like it's more than comparative gameplay siblings in the GTA series, the "do anything you want, go anywhere you please" philosophy is wonderfully enforced. They give you a big ol' wild west world to ride around in and explore. There's tons of characters to interact with. Some are quite lecherous and seedy, others are good and decent people, while some are just plain odd and downright creepy. Many of them will put you on quests and ask you to help them out on jobs. Performing these tasks will earn you money, fame and notoriety.

The settings and graphic design work on this game is breathtaking. I found myself gazing up at the sunset that silhouetted mountain range more than a few times. I also came across many small towns that dot the old west. From the classic township of Armadillo to the white walled Mexican town of Las Hermanas to the spooky and swampy Thieves Landing. Every town has it's own character which helps give this open world setting a good amount of variety which can get lost a bit when you and your horse are traversing the constant open plains. Rockstar North does make sure to pepper the plains with lots of wildlife to hunt and / or run away from. There's also snowy, wooded mountainsides to venture into. I also had Marston exploring old gold mines, outlaw hideouts, graveyards and a couple of old forts. Suffice it to say, there's a ton of stuff to do and see in this game!

There's also a good amount of weapons and tools to use to make your stay in the wild west a little more safe. A lasso, rifles, shotguns, throwing knifes, Molotov cocktails all fall into the mix and come in handy when a gang of thieves pop out of nowhere to try and take your money.

The combat system is much like its GTA counterparts where you're able to take cover behind objects while popping up to take shots. What makes it unique is the Dead Eye feature which slows down the gameplay and zooms into the action allowing you to bead in on multiple enemies at once. Once the Dead Eye feature is released (or runs out, since it can only be used for limited time) Marston unleashes bullet furry in a flash of time. The next thing you know, a bunch of bad guy bodies are hitting the dirt ground. Some players found this feature made the shootouts too easy to get through. I found it very addictive. But, it is true that you won't always want to rely on the Dead Eye alone. I mostly used it when I found myself outnumbered or on horseback.

The main feature about this game that helps it stand out amongst others is that you get lost in the epic storyline. You'll want to see this adventure through to the very end, not just because of the gameplay, but because the game designers make you care about the story through the wonderful characterization and voice acting work. The voice acting is the very best I've heard in a game, squeaking past the work done on Mass Effect 2 by a hair. This is the closest I've every come to feeling I was actually playing a full fledged Hollywood movie. It's that frackin' good!

SPOILER ALERT (Highlight to read if you haven't finished the game yet)

There's also a huge plot twist right towards the end of the game that will stop you in your tracks! It'll have you screaming at the TV screen, "But that CAN'T be the end!?!?! They can't close the story this way!!!!" Don't worry. They don't. The story picks up several years after the plot twist and now you're in another pair of boots out for justice, or revenge. However you want to look at it. I can't recall that kind of element ever used in the story of a video game before.

You're probably hearing a lot about how this is THE best game of the year. I have to admit, it is certainly up there. However there were a couple of times where I was ready to toss the controller into the TV screen. The control scheme of the game can be quite dodgy at times. More than once I found myself trying to reach for my gun in a dire situation and the controls refused to respond, leaving my cheese in the wind and Marston's ass on the dirty ground. Not cool. Horseback riding is pretty darn smooth for the most part however you horse is a dumb animal and will fall off cliffs taking you with it if you're not careful. I also found myself getting Marston caught against surfaces I was trying to keep him under cover on. Sometimes I couldn't pull away from the surface I was hiding behind. I feel the controls could have been quite a bit better, especially when Rockstar North put so much time and effort into this epically detailed story they were telling. Some people are complaining that this game is no more than Grand Theft Auto game set in the wild west. That may be so, but there's nothing wrong with that! GTA has more than proved itself as being an excellent gameplay experience. Heck, maybe for their next game they can do something similar in a medieval setting, or perhaps a Gothic horror setting.

Once I completed the game and the credits finally rolled, I sat there a while and found myself thinking about what I had just experienced. I rarely, if ever, do that after I play a game. That's what kind of an impact this game had on me. There are those art-house curmudgeons out there who say that video games will never surpass the art of film. Well, Rockstar North took a few strides closer to that reality with Red Dead Redemption.

Check it out if you have the time.

Until the next mindless post, as a wise man once told me, stay vertical!

Zangz.

Gen Con Milwaukee Remembered: Part 6

2010-08-24T19:34:00.003-05:00

Here is the last of the Gen Con series of journal entries that I wrote back early last decade when Gen Con was held in Milwaukee. This particular entry chronicles the last days of Milwaukee's Gen Con.

So dig in and enjoy.....

Saturday August 11^th, 2002.

- Another healthy walk to the Midwest Express Convention Center brings me to Sci-Fi Saturday. It is the day in which most of the celebrity Q&A sessions are to take place.

- I get there at about 9:30am and see that certain Gen Con traditions will never die. The entire schedule has indeed changed. I get on the pay phone and leave a message on Spanky’s cell phone (THAT HE SHOULD HAVE HAD TURNED ON!!!) and tell him to get here STAT ‘cause Lisa Ryder’s (Becka from “Andromeda”) Q&A was a few minutes away.

- I’m not much of an “Andromeda” fan at all. I think I watched half of one episode once. But I’ll tell you this, if you thought Lisa Ryder was pretty on television…. you need to see her in person! I made sure I got a good seat near the front.

PEOPLE WATCHING LESSON #4:

WHEN OGLING THE FEMALE CELEBRITIES… revert back to Lesson #3!

- Miss Ryder seemed very personable and happy to see everyone. Half the people there were from her fan club which seemed to consist of young, giggling girls. Go figure.

- I walk across the way where officials were getting ready for the costume contest.

- I took a picture of a gentleman in an incredible Legolas (From Lord of the Rings) outfit.

- There was still no sign of Spanky or Koreboy by the time Ethan Phillips (Star Trek: Voyager / Benson) showed up for his Q&A.

- Surprisingly he didn’t talk a lot about Voyager. Instead he talked about what it was like starting out as a stage actor in New York. It was quite interesting and entertaining until…

- Suddenly the door to the room swings open. A figure wearing a tie-dye Darth Maul T-Shirt stands in the doorway… It’s Spanky.

- Spanky makes his way over to where I’m sitting right in the middle of Mr. Phillips Q&A. Spanky is accompanied by Koreboy and his friend Tom.

- Mr. Phillips makes the wise decision to ignore the interruption and go on with his story.

- The Q&A session ends and Spanky shows me his bag of free con swag. He’s in geek heaven.

- About 15 minutes later the next Q&A session starts. It’s Warwick Davis who played the title role in the fantasy film “Willow” as well as Wickett the Ewok in “Star Wars, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi”.

- Warwick was very funny and seemed to have a great sense of humor about things. He was very outgoing and charming.

- After he waddled on off Spanky, Koreboy, Tom and I decide to head to the mall and get a bite to eat.

- Outside of one unfortunate incident involving Tom, his wedge fries and the floor, lunch at the mall was pretty uneventful.

- We decide to head back to the main hall where Spanky wanted to get some celebrity autographs and play some form of “Family Feud” that would win him MORE free swag.

- We head to the autograph area where Ethan Phillips is signing. Spanky is in front of me in line and reaches Ethan first.

- At this time Spanky decides it’s time to play Mr. Comedy with Ethan and asks poor, tired Ethan to sign his autograph “ To the president of the James Noble Fan Club. (James Noble is the actor who portrayed the Governor on the TV sitcom “Benson” on which Ethan Phillips played Pete Downey) Ya see, in Spanky’s mind an obscure character actor reference = big side splitting laugh from Star Trek celebrity. Mr. Phillips gives a quick chuckle. No side splitting laugh as was expected by Spanky.

- When I get to Ethan, he asks me if I’m a member of the same fan club.

- I reply, “…umm, I think I let my membership laps.” At which he gives a bit more of a laugh than he did with Spanky.

- We move off the autograph stage and over to the hallway to get our swag in order when “it” hits my nostrils…

- Either rotting corpses have risen from the grave and are lurking up and down the halls of Gen Con, or somebody decided that three days of non stop gaming with no bathing would be a welcoming idea. Think again, B.O. Boy!

- I decide that it would have been a good idea for convention officials to hand out bars of soap to people entering the con.

- We decide to split up because Spanky, Tom and Koreboy want to go “play the Feud” while I stay in people watching mode.

- I walk up and down the isles a bit more and run into the Clyde Caldwell art booth.

- I have a very good time looking at his wonderful fantasy art.

- I have an even better time looking at his wonderful model dressed in skimpy barbarian clothing…. Not that I’m into that or anything. Hey, I’m an art lover. What can I say?

- I run into Hope, Mario and a few other people I have gamed with including Dave and Jim. We walk around a bit together and end up by the autograph stage to just shoot the breeze a bit.

- While I’m in mid conversation I hear what sounds like Daffy Duck having his liver pulled out of him through his nostril with no anesthesia. The sound seems to be coming from the autograph stage.

- I suddenly realize that it’s Spanky calling my name.

- I look up to the stage, and sure enough, there’s Spanky holding up the line of people who want to get Don P. Davis’ autograph.

- He sees I have my camera and wants a picture of him and Don together.

- He continues to hold up the line until I get the picture taken.

- Just as I’m about to go back to Hope and Mario, Spanky grabs me as he comes off the stage and pulls me over to a smaller autograph table where Lisa Ryder is signing.

- He has her sign a picture and write, “Spanky, SHUT UP!” on it. Ya see, this way when people who know Spanky see the autograph, they’ll figure Miss Ryder is a close friend of his too seeing as most of his friends spend a lot of time telling him to “SHUT UP!” Not gunna happen, Spanky.

- I take his picture with her. She looks freighted.

- I finally get back to Hope, Mario and the others and finish our conversation.

- We no sooner head out into the lobby when Bruce and Leslie show up dressed in full Rebel Trooper outfits (You know, the guys who wore those goofy white helmets, who ended up being cannon fodder at the beginning of “Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope”). Not far behind them is a fellow dressed up as infamous Imperial leader, Grand Admiral Thrawn (From the SW novels Aire to the Empire, The Last Command…etc.), blue face and all!! Very cool!

- I take many pictures of them all!

- Not much happening after they close the main hall doors, so I head home.

Sunday, August 11^th, 2002.

- I arrive at Gen Con at 9:30am to meet Koreboy in the main lobby of the Midwest Express Center so he can drop off something he picked up for me at this year’s Wizard World Convention (a big comic book convention in Chicago).

- I’m in a rather melancholy mood with this being the last day of the last Milwaukee Gen Con. But, what can ya do. Incompetence and greed always seem to come out on top, don’t they?

- After a while Koreboy shows up with Tom and Spanky in tow. He hands me a bag with a small treasure inside. A 6” Chianna from “Farscape” action figure. Now I have my little own GiGi Edgley to put up in my work space at my job. Do you see how sad, little pathetic things can make me happy.

- They head into the main hall while I wait for two of my fellow Cthulhu players who have never been to Gen Con to show up.

- After a while Muffy and Shifty show up and we head into the convention.

- After fiddling around with getting Shifty and Muffy registered and trying to put together the annoying, little, cheap plastic chain that holds the con badge around one’s neck, we head up to the show room.

- Within the first 10 minutes, Muffy and Shifty have dropped $30. It’s going to be an expensive day. Especially because I have to get my hands on whatever’s left here that I want!!

- During the day, Muffy, Shifty and I lose the contents of our wallets to crap such as…

- More beanie-plush Cthulhus (They’re so damn cute when they suck your soul from ya!).

- I get 5 more sets of dice to make up for whatever years of Gen Con I’m about to miss.

- A compilation of Lovcraftian, Cthulhu mythos stories.

- Mini remote control cars.

- Miniature replicas of Star Wars vehicles and ships.

- A T-Shirt with a shield and skulls designed by Brom.

- A Mystatonik University Student Parking sticker (an inside Cthulhu joke).

- A KFC (Kids For Cthulhu) T-Shirt.

- A life-sized, anatomically correct mannequin of Herve Villachez that says, “I love the Cheese Castle” in Portugese, when his pinky finger is squeezed.

(I made up that last one just to see if you were paying attention.)

- After Shifty and Muffy were taped out and exhausted, they decided to hit the road. I stay and do the last of my people watching.

PEOPLE WATCHING LESSON #5:

MASKING TAPE HAS FAR MORE USES THAN I THOUGHT. EVIDENTLY, IT CAN BE USED AS A BIKINI.

- I meet up with Bruce and Leslie again. We all plan to meet Hope and Mario at the entrance to the main hall at the last minutes of Gen Con and head out to a restaurant and toast the end of the biggest gaming convention known to mankind!

- I take one last walk around the main hall and at 3:55pm, I head to the main entrance and meet up with the rest of the gang. As we leave the convention center there are no tears, just disappointment that this is the end.

As the curtain finally closes on Milwaukee’s last Gen Con, many gamers wander slowly back to their cars and hotels and get ready to leave the city, not to return to Milwaukee next year or possibly ever again.

There will be another gaming fair next year in Indianapolis, which I’m sure will be very, very good. Who knows, I may even make the trek out there in the next few years. But one thing is for sure, it won’t have the same charm as it did in Milwaukee! Let’s face facts; if it ain’t in Milwaukee…it just ain’t Gen Con!

The End………

I hope you enjoyed my homage to the Gen Con's of old in these last several posts. For the next blog we'll be back to normal as I wax poetic on the video game masterpiece Red Dead Redemption.

Stay vertical, true believers!

Zangz.

Gen Con Milwaukee Remembered: Part 5

2010-08-18T18:48:00.002-05:00

Here we go with Part 5 of my Journal from back in 2002....

ZANGZ’S GEN CON GAME FAIR JOURNAL 2002 – THE LAST HUZZAH!

Thursday, August 9^th, 2002

- Here it is!!! The first official day of this years Gen Con Game Fair. I get there right at the stroke of 10am, just in time for the huge, 3^rd floor exhibition hall to open.

- There is such an over flux of people at this year’s Gen Con that convention center officials have to block off the escalators going up until the hall doors open.

- I’m trapped like a sardine between many other gamers who are trying to get onto the blocked off escalator.

- I look up from the second floor to the third floor and see my fellow Star Wars RPG gamers, Bruce and Leslie, standing there waiting to get in. They see me and wave. - I wave back to them helplessly as I’m still trapped on the 2^nd floor. Luckily most of the gamers I’m squished in line with don’t smell quite as bad as Gen Con legends have suggested that Gen Coners smell. But I bet by the end of Sunday some of their fragrance will be a bit ripe.

- About five minutes after 10am, there’s finally movement. People are slowly streaming into the exhibition hall. They finally open up the escalator and I make my way to the hall.

- The hall is once again a gamer’s version of heaven. The room is filled with booths loaded with new role playing games, computer games, card games, T-shirts and other geek goodies to empty our wallets for.

- I start shopping for things on my list and collecting free swag.

- Within 5 minutes there’s a gentleman handing out free T-shirts!! This convention is starting off pretty good after all!!

- I walk up and down the aisles grabbing up things I know that I need to get now, because Gen Con won’t be here next year.

- Items Purchased:

-There’s a small Beanie Cthulhu (creature derived from the horror writings of H.P. Lovecraft) that I purchase and name Desmond.

-Next up another Lovecraft Ale T-shirt (the one I bought last year was a size too small).

-Then I grab a CD of the soundtrack of the first two seasons of Farscape.

-Then I go back to the Cthulhu trend and buy the Creature Companion for the Call of Cthulhu RPG that I run.

- I find out that Hasbro is going to sell these new customizable action figures called Stikfas the next day in the huge WOTC castle that they have set up smack dab in the center of the convention hall. I’ll have to go back later and grab me a couple.

- I spend the rest of the day walking up and down the aisles, grabbing free swag and people watching.

PEOPLE WATCHING, LESSON #1:

IF YOU DON’T HAVE A BODY THAT’S CONDUCIVE TO SHOWING IT OFF, DON’T DRESS LIKE YOU DO!!

God knows I’m not blessed with Mark Walberg’s physique. And that’s why you will not find me walking around in skimpy chain mail.

- I head on over to the Hyatt’s ballrooms for a celebrity Q&A.

- I meet up with Bruce and Leslie there and we go over our purchased boons for the day.

- Bruce made out with a bunch of die cast miniatures he likes to paint.

- Leslie is having one of the attending artists do a Boba Fett painting for her.

- The celebrity Q&A turns out to be Don P. Davis who plays the Colonel on “Stargate, S.G.-1” and portrayed Agent Scully’s father in episodes of “The X-Files”.

- Don was laid back and amusing. Says he started out as a stunt man and worked his way up… or over, depending on whom you ask.

- Afterward, we head down to Wells street where the convention organizers have closed off the street under the convention center’s overpass where a block party / boxing matches is about to commence.

- The party started a half an hour late and featured big pretzels with cheese and mustard, boxes of pop corn, ice cream bars and of course the most important ingredient… FREE BEER!!!!

- After grabbing some food and beverages, we find a table front and center and facing the boxing ring. Gaming company White Wolf (Vampire, Wraith, Werewolf, etc…) have challenged a few other gaming companies to three boxing matches that will last a few minutes each.

- I leave the table to get more FREE BEER, only to be horrified to find that the beer is no longer free (Gee… a half an hour of free beer. How gracious. …And YES, I am looking a gift horse in the mouth. DEAL WITH IT!!).

- I run into my friend, Spanky on the way back to the table. He’s dressed in appropriate con decor….NOT!!!

- A suit and tie adorns Spanky as he’s just arrived from the office. What? He didn’t take the day off for Gen Con? BLASPHEMY!!!!!

- I talk to him and another geek friend, Koreboy, and make plans to go to the celebrity Q&As that will be held on Saturday

- I head back to Bruce, Leslie and Bruce’s sister, Bonnie, who’s just joined us.

- The new owner of Gen Con gets up and speaks to the crowd.

- He apologizes for having to move the con.

- A few “Boos” are heard throughout the crowd.

- He explains how excited he is to be moving it to Indianapolis.

- Crickets are heard chirping.

- Let the games begin!!!

- The first match is a bit of a slap fest. But the ring-girl is cute!!! White Wolf takes the victory!!

- The second match was a bit more violent. More of a smacking match this time. Cute ring-girl. White Wolf is victorious.

- The third match is far more exciting than the previous two. Blood was drawn!!! Ring-girl…cute. White Wolf wins again.

- White Wolf takes home the trophies… and the ring-girls.

- We pack it up and leave. I head home for a good night’s coma.

Friday August 10^th, 2002

- Another long walk to the convention center got me there a little after 10am. There was no wait to get into the convention hall this time so I was able to put a dent into my wallet a lot quicker.

- Items Purchased:

- Two sets of role playing dice.

- An Evil Dead T-shirt for my friend Shifty’s B-day present.

- Two Stikfa action figures.

- The Dark Side Source Book for the Star Wars RPG.

- Almost the entire day was spent wandering, shopping and people watching.

PEOPLE WATCHING, LESSON #2:

THE GIRLS WHO ARE REALLY GOOD LOOKING AND ATTENDING THE CON ARE EITHER…

A. ARE THERE WITH A BOYFRIEND (USUALLY A C.E.O. OF A GAMING COMPANY).

B. ARE THERE TRYING TO SELL YOU THE NEXT BIG COLLECTIBLE CARD GAME (also know as CCGs …also known as expensive book marks. They can also be good for starting camp fires).

C. ARE THERE TO BOOST THEIR EGO BY BEING STARED AT AND HIT ON BY US GEEKS, FULL WELL KNOWING THEY WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH ANY OF US.

D. ALL OF THE ABOVE!

- I decide to break up the monotony by heading over to the art show where many of the artists sell their fantasy paintings, pictures, crafts and prints.

- I see Brom’s display. He’s not there, unfortunately.

- All of the art is quite enjoyable, and it’s nice to be able to meet and talk to the artists themselves.

- Sadly, outside of the Brom work, nothing really jumps out at me this year.

- I head back to the show room and wander up and down the isles some more.

- I see Don P. Davis and Teryl Rothery from Stargate-SG1 signing autographs at the autograph booth.

- I run into my friends Hope and Mario. They’re having a good time and rush on by to do more shopping.

- I walk down another isle to see a small line of people. At the head of the line is a tall slender fellow signing game cards.

- IT’S BROM!!! I get in line and when my turn comes up I gush like a complete idiot. I tell him I love his creepy, undead paintings. He says he likes painting the creepy, undead things. Cool. I got to meet him after all.

- Five minutes later, Brom alerts security to my presence.

- I do more walking and people watching.

PEOPLE WATCHING LESSON #3:

WHEN OGLING THE SPOKES-MODELS, DON’T MAKE EYE CONTACT WITH THEM. IF YOU DO MAKE EYE CONTACT WITH THEM, DON’T CONTINUE TO OGLE THEM. IF YOU DO CONTINUE TO OGLE THEM, DON’T DO IT FOR 45 MINUTES STRAIGHT. THE CONVENTION HALL’S SECURITY ARE ALLOWED TO USE PEPPER SPRAY!!

- It’s early evening and it’s nearing time for me to go to my first seminar. It’s on how to utilize villains in your campaigns.

- The seminar is a good one and answers a few questions I had on how to manage my lead villain in the “Call of Cthulhu” game I’m running.

- I find I have another hour before my last seminar. So I head down to the Hyatt’s bar and run into a few mutual friends.

- After a beer and good conversation, I head to the next seminar, a game masters’ panel.

- This seminar pretty much proved to me that I was running my Cthulhu game correctly so far as well as what to watch out for as a game master.

- It’s late and it’s time to head back home and sleep.

Part 6 is on the way, gang!

Zangz.

Gen Con Milwaukee Remembered Part 4

2010-08-11T19:19:00.003-05:00

Today we start a new chapter in my recollections of Gen Con when it was held here in Milwaukee.

Part 3 wrapped up my mussings on what happened in 2001. We now venture into Gen Con 2002, the last year it was in Milwaukee.

So, here we go, back in time to experience....

ZANGZ’S GEN CON GAME FAIR JOURNAL 2002 – THE LAST HUZZAH!

PROLOGUE:

(Yes, there’s a prologue. Stop your whining!!)

For nearly 20 years the Gen Con Game Fair has called Milwaukee its home. As a local gaming geek, I felt great pride that thousands of gamers as well as Sci-Fi Fantasy and Horror fans have made the pilgrimage to the city I call home. They come together every year and bask in all of Gen Con’s geeky - Gothic glory as the people and businesses in our city have welcomed them with very open and affectionate arms!!!

Sadly, things change and few years after TSR, originators of Gen Con, got bought out by Wizards of the Coast (or WOTC as they shall hence be referred to as), WOTC announced that after their commitment with Milwaukee convention officials is over in 2002, they’ll be moving our beloved Gen Con Game Fair to the way happening, party town of…………..Indianapolis, Indiana…………(sound of crickets chirping).

Imagine, if you will, what it would be like if one day some big conglomerate bought out Harley-Davidson Motorcycles and wanted to move the plant to Zimbabwe. Although that’s admittedly a gross exaggeration upon my part, it’s kind of a close analogy of how the move feels to me.

This decision would make this year, 2002, the last year that the city of Milwaukee would have Gen Con …The last huzzah.

Why did this happen, you may ask? Perhaps it’s because a certain huge gaming company is far more concerned about making more money than keeping tradition alive. Or maybe it’s because local housing officials, local city planers, as well as local convention and tourism officials, care very little about keeping big, popular conventions in the town they work for. Yes, I’m a wee tad bitter.

In any case, this will be the last Gen Con Milwaukee will see in a very long time, if not ever again.

This FINALLY brings us to the beginning of….

ZANGZ’S GEN CON GAME FAIR JOURNAL 2002 – THE LAST HUZZAH!

Here’s a play-by-play of my adventures culminating from this years GenCon….

Early January, 2002 to Late July, 2002.

- I could waste time telling you of the craziness of what it was like trying to pre-register for the Gen Con Game Fair on-line, but then I would start grinding my teeth again. Since my teeth are ground down to their gums by now, I’ll save you the agony. Suffice it to say, there was a lot of registering and re-registering and “Product not available” messages. Throw getting charged twice on your credit card for something you attempted to purchase ONCE into the mix and you’ll get a slight idea. All I could think was, “If this is the last Gen Con in Milwaukee, it better be worth the madness of the on-line registration they put us through.”

July 29^th, 2002.

- Since WOTC didn’t send out a schedule booklet, I go to the WOTC Gen Con website to get a grip on what all I really want to do at this year’s game fair.

- I see they have the celebrities finalized and set….

*Warwick Davis (Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Willow, Leprechaun)

*Don P. Davis - (Stargate, SG-1, X-Files)

*Ethan Phillips (Star Trek: Voyager)

*Teryl Rothery (Stargate: SG-1)

*Lisa Ryder (Andromeda, Forever Knight)

*Majandra Delfino (Roswell)

*Brom - Incredible fantasy / horror artist who does wonderfully creepy and disturbing as well as mind boggling and beautiful artwork.

-Originally Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek: Next Generation) and Ted Ramie (Xena, Seaquest: DSV) were to attend, but those appearances fell through at the last minute.

-I make note of who I want to see when and what seminars I want to attend and make myself out a schedule, fully knowing that this schedule will be completely revamped when the convention starts.

Wednesday, August 8^th, 2002

- After a nice long walk, I get to the convention center in the late afternoon, to sign up for whatever events I couldn’t sign up for on-line (See Early January/Late February).

- I notice several huge lines of gamers also trying to register for events. The lines head every which way and never seem to end. Just great.

- After 10 minutes of running around in a state of major confusion trying to make some sort of sense of it all, I find a con program and the line I’m to be in to get registered for a few seminars I want to get into. The line winds around to the opposite side of the convention center than where the ticket booth is.

- I get in line and read through the program once.

- I read through the program a second time.

- I read the program a third time.

- I read the program one more time just to make sure there wasn’t anything I missed the first three times.

- Made awkward small talk to the individual in front of me.

- Read through the program yet again to initiate the whole, previous, vicious cycle all over again.

- I finally reached the Event Registration Ticket Booth.

- I recognize the individual who’s selling me the tickets, it’s Fred! Fred is a friend of Spanky’s (more on Spanky later).

- I finally have the seminar tickets in hand 3 hours after arriving. Time to go home and get some sleep.

Part 5 is just down the road, so keep your eyes open!

Zangz.

Gen Con Milwaukee Remembered: Part 3

2010-08-06T19:10:00.004-05:00

We now move on to part 3 of my adventures during the 2001 Gen Con when it was in Milwaukee.

Enjoy.....

ZANGZ's GEN CON JOURNAL PART 3

Saturday, August 4th, 2001.

It's "Sci-Fi Saturday" at GenCon today and there are a bunch of celebrity Q&A sessions I want to hear so I high tail it down to the Midwest Express center and get the skinny on the where's, when's and how's of the Q&A sessions (at least I think I do). I briefly run into a couple I currently game with. He's dressed as Pan, god of mischief and she's dressed as a Lovcraftian Schoolgirl, complete with Necronomicon schoolbooks. I know many a fan-boy who'd want to carry her books to class for her, although, Pan might have something to say about it. After chatting with them I then head back to the vendor hall and to the autograph stage to make my claim in line. To my dismay the autograph line zigzags through the separators all the way down the convention aisle. Crap! I guess I'll try again tomorrow. It's no wonder the line is so large. For none other Lando Calrisian (Billy Dee Williams) walks out on the autograph stage to huge applause. I'll have to be more assertive tomorrow. I'm not much of an autograph hound, but in the last few years I've tried to get a few people from the Star Wars movies. He's definitely a must! I better get to the hall where they'll be having his Q&A session if the crowd is this big for the autograph singing.

I get to the Hyatt's ballroom 50 minutes before Billy Dee is scheduled. There's no one there! I'll get a great seat!! I sit and read Bram Stoker's Dracula for a while when in comes Coreboy, a con friend, who accompanied by a few friends and is quite surprised that there's hardly anyone here 30 minutes before. That should have been the first sign of foul play. Not 5 minutes later my friend, Spanky calls Coreboy on his cell phone informing us that the Q&A has been moved to another ballroom in another hotel across the way!!! Have you ever seen con geeks panic? It's quite a sight. We start shouting at Spanky over the phone, "WHAT HOTEL!?!?!?!", "WHERE'D YOU GET THAT INFORMATION FROM!?!?!!?", "DEAR GOD!!!!!", "START RUNNING!!!"

So Coreboy, his buddies and I start to make the frantic trek all the way back to the convention center, through the second floor lobby and across the street to the Hilton where we make a mad dash for the concierge. "Where's the Ballroom?" we ask. He looks at us blankly and says, "Which one?" NOT WHAT WE WANTED TO HEAR!!!!! MORE PANIC!!! He tells us that the ballrooms are on the 4th and 5th floors. We bolt to the elevators. Here's one! Going down. Here's another! Going down. Damn! Time's ticking away and whatever room the Billy Dee Q&A is in is probably filling up. Finally one that's going up!! We get in and decide to split up into two groups, kinda like Scooby Doo. One group will go to the 4th floor while the other will go to the 5th. Coreboy and one of his buddies go to the 4th and his other buddy and I go to the 5th. We run around the 5th floor of the Hilton like chickens with our head cut off. We find one ballroom filled with tons of CCG players. Obviously, this isn't it. As we are about to leave Coreboy and his friend show up telling us there are no ballrooms on the 4th floor. He decides to ask one of the WOTC staff who is running the CCG tournament. They have no clue as to what the hell he's babbling about. Suddenly a horrid thought runs through my head. What if Spanky's information was wrong, nothing changed and we spent the last 15 minutes losing our good seats by running around like pinheads for no reason? Coreboy gets Spanky on the cell phone and asks where he got his info. Spanky tells us that they made an announcement over at the autograph stage where he and his girlfriend were and that the Q&A is in this hotel in the Plankington Ballroom. This results in another mad dash trying to find the Plankington Ballroom. When we finally find it, its 12:00pm on the dot and there's one, count 'em, one person who's in this room waiting for something. Again we doubt Spanky's information. You'd think the place would be wall to wall with Star Wars geeks. We go up to this gentleman and ask what event he's here for. He tells us there's supposed to be a seminar on some RPG I never heard of before. Spanky is in for it!! Just as we're about to curse Spanky's name, a small group of people wander in with confusion on their faces asking us if this is where Billy Dee Williams will be. We tell them we're not sure. Then more confused people come in and ask the same question. It seems as though WOTC changed the location at the last minute and we were in the right place after all. Thank god!!! A major tragedy was averted thanks to Spanky's attentiveness. THANKS SPANKY!!! We scored front row seats and reserved seats in the second row for Spanky and his girlfriend who arrive a few minutes later.

After a while the place fills up and in walks a skinny, white guy who addresses the crowd. Boy, Billy Dee has lost some weight and is quite pale since I saw him this morning. He identifies himself as Mr. Williams' assistant (oh) and proceeds to introduce Billy Dee. Loud applause....Loud applause. Billy Dee Williams' Q&A session was very subdued. I don't think he was used to doing Q&A sessions. He was very quiet and laid back and perhaps a bit shy. I felt sorry for the people in the back who couldn't hear him. Due to the last minute changes of venues there was no microphone for him to use. He talked about his film work, his painting and his books. He's a very eclectic individual. After his Q&A session ended he smiled and the crowd applauded again as he left the room.

Up next was "Star Trek: the Next Generation's" Marina Sirtis who plays Counselor Troi. What fan-boy could resist that Q&A? Certainly not us!! After about five minutes of waiting I look to my right and not six feet away from me is Marina Sirtis. It's like she appeared out of thin air or perhaps was transported into the room. It's probably more likely I was zoning out and didn't notice her come in. Apparently many others in the room didn't either because everyone let out a bit of a surprised, "Ohhhh!!!" She done sneaked up on us!! Loud applause....loud applause. Marina was delightful!! She was funny, vivacious and very animated. She's certainly not very hard on the 'ol peepers either!! Having front row seats didn't hurt this seminar AT ALL! Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. KnowhatImean, KnowhatImean. After Marina was done we decided to split up. I wanted to go back to the convention center and wander around a bit before I went to the last seminar of the day, "Star Wars: Connections"!!

After about an hour and a half of more "people watching", I decided to head to the Hyatt Ballroom where the Star Wars seminar was to be held. When I arrived there was already a line waiting to get in. You see this seminar is being given by Steven J. Sansweet who, in the beginning, was a fan and collector of the Star Wars saga. He now works as a sort of liaison for Lucasfilms. Lucky bastard. He knows his stuff and he's brought with him some promotional footage of Star Wars, Episode II. Drool Drool Drool!!!! Just before they let us in, a bunch of fans dressed in Imperial Stormtrooper garb walk up to the line. Very impressive!!! My hats off to them. I wont go into much detail about what all was shown at Mr. Sansweet's little show. But, suffice it to say, Episode II looks like it's going to be far better and a bit darker than its Disney-esque predecessor!!! LESS THAN A YEAR!!!!!! What I will tell you is that he gave a little preview of what to expect on the upcoming Episode I DVD release this October 16th. There will be lots of fun filled extras that fans will really appreciate including some fully completed deleted scenes and an excellent documentary on the making of the film and of course George Lucas' commentary!!

I head home afterward, take a shower, change clothes and meet up with Pan and his Lovecraftian schoolgirl (now cleverly disguised as normal people) at a Middle Eastern restaurant right around the corner from my apartment, just in time. Great meal! Great conversation! Great company! Time for bed.

Sunday August 5th, 2001.

It's the last day of Gen Con and my last chance to get Billy Dee Williams' autograph. I get to the front of the sealed vendor hall doors an hour before they open up. I'm poised and ready for action!! After a while it starts to get crowded and security moves us back five feet so as we don't smash into the vendor hall doors. We're reminded not to run. DON'T RUN?!?!?! Gamers have places to go, autographs to get, games to start! Finally the doors slowly open and we're greeted with about five worried WOTC workers in front of us holding up their hands in the "halt" position (why am I suddenly reminded of that scene at the end of Animal House where Kevin Bacon is trying to tame an unruly, panicked crowd? "ALL IS WELL!"). We herd on through them ignoring their pathetic pleas. Most of us head straight for the autograph both to avoid yesterday's fiasco when WOTC had to turn away a ton of people from getting Billy Dee's autograph. Not today, buck-o!! For I am about 20th in line and have a secure spot. So I may have maimed a small child and knocked over an old lady or two to get here. No biggie. For a free autographed picture of one of the big players in the Star Wars saga, I would have sold my mom to the Arabs. He helped blow up the second Death Star for crissakes!!

After Mr. Williams graciously signs my b&w 8X10, I happily spend the rest of the day wandering around lapping up the last day of geekdom. I do end up buying one more item, a kacky, dark blue AKIRA t-shirt. I also pick up more swag at the White Wolf Publishing booth. I also check out the art show which has some fabulous work! As I'm about to leave I hear over the loud speaker that fantasy author Neal Barrett, Jr. is signing free copies of his latest book. "Neal Barrett who?....wait a minute...FREE?" I head back to the autographing stage where I see Coreboy already way ahead of me. The line is small and after I get my signed book I decide it's time to bid a fair adieu to the Gen Con game fair for another year.

Next year will be a toughie since it will be leaving its home of Milwaukee thereafter. But at least we still have one more and who knows what celebrities and craziness they have planed for next year. Who knows, I may even meet that cute gaming honey!!!! I won't hold my breath.

Until next year, Gen Con.

P.S. Actually, I wouldn't sell my Mom to the Arabs. Love you Ma!

Hold on there folks! Much to what is probably your chagrin, this is not the end of my Gen Con journals. We still have a few more to go that chronicle the last year Gen Con was in Milwaukee, 2002.

So stay tuned for that.

Zangz.

Gen Con Milwaukee Remembered: Part 2

2010-08-04T16:36:00.002-05:00

Welcome to Part 2 of my remembrances of Gen Con's past when they were held in Milwaukee. They are journals of the sights, sounds and, god help us, smells of one of the greatest gaming / fantasy / Sci-Fi conventions that once was.

I do have to apologize for a few things before I post Part 2.

First of all, I mean no disrespect to fans of the current Gen Con that is held in Indiana. I have yet to go there, so I admittedly have nothing to judge it on. But, you have to take into account the fact that Gen Con was my local convention for years. When it was taken away from the city, it cut deeply into my geek psyche. So there's some bitterness there.

Second, I really don't feel like Wiki-linking every name that comes up in these journals. There's a ton of them. If you really have the need to look someone or something up, that's what Google.com is for. I'm sorry I'm being a bit lazy on that front.

Third, if you think my spelling and grammar are bad now, you can imaging how bad they were back when I wrote these things.

Fourth, I'm no HTML geek. That lack of talent doesn't mix well with cutting and pasting these journals to blogger.com. Blogger.com has a tendency to take what I paste and give it whatever font or size it feels like and will not let me change them. So I'm sorry the journals can turn out to look a little odd at times.

Having that out of the way, here's part 2.....

ZANGZ's GEN CON 2001 JOURNAL: Part 2

Thursday, August 2nd, 2001.

I wake up bright and early, get on the bus and arrive about a half an hour before they open the vendor hall. The place is heavy with con-geeks such as myself, all heading to games, running to seminars or waiting for the vendor hall to open up. I decide to see if they have any info on where the heck the celebrity Q& A sessions are as well as when and where the "Star Wars: Connections" seminar is being held. It is briefly mentioned in the GenCon book, but no other information is given. I finally get the information from a member of Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) at an info booth and I'm set for the weekend.

At 10:00am the big vendor room doors slowly rise and a herd of us gamer goofs rush in. Each one of us heading down one of the 15 or so isles filled with goodies and treasure. Down one isle you may find vendors selling a multitude of different colored dice, a cape and cowl or Warhammer 50K miniatures just waiting to be painted and put into a strategic battle. Down another isle you'll find other vendors selling a new role playing game, a new collectible card game (also known as a CCG - they're for gamers who don't have the imagination to role play. I use them as bookmarks.) or a multitude of different T-shirts with our favorite Sci-Fi, Fantasy or Horror characters on them. If god is truly loving and gracious, this IS what heaven will be like (I guess hell will only have CCG stuff).

I plod around the place in a bit of a daze, not knowing what to concentrate on first. I see some things I like and keep a mental note to visit the booths again during the con. In the very center of the vendor hall is a huge post modern castle. This is where WOTC sell their wares, such as Dungeons & Dragons, the new Star Wars role playing game (RPG) and Pokemon CCGs (aka: PURE EVIL!). At least you now know how WOTC acquired the convention from D&D originators TSR (Actually they acquired TSR.). Pokemon wields great power.

At quarter to noon I head across the street to the Hilton's Mitchell Room to attend a seminar titled, "First Time Game Master". I sit down in the small hall and grab some soda and snacks they have left for us. This will be lunch for today. The seminar is given by a man simply identified as Don. Don is a slender guy with a gray beard, fedora and fishing vest (ok, one thing you would notice if you attended this con is that a lot of gamer guys wear fishing vests. I'm a gamer and I don't have one, but evidently they have tons of pockets to put things like, dice pencils and free "con swag" into - more on "con swag" later.). Don has played RPG's since 1980 and has game mastered (GM) since 1986. So he knows what he's talking about. After the round of applause at his conclusion I dart back to the vendor hall to do a little shopping.

As I wander down the isles I'm greeted by many a pretty spokes model trying to make eye contact so they can hand me a pamphlet on their company's games. What I find amusing is how we con boys get suckered into talking and flirting with these girls. They're so sweet and nice to us we tend to forget that outside of these conventions they wouldn't know a 10d from a 12d and probably wouldn't give an aerial intercourse on a flying pastry (that's 10 sided dice from a 12 sided dice. I don't think I need to tell you what an aerial intercourse...etc., etc., is.). However it is nice when they, or anyone else from these companies, hand out con swag!! Con swag refers to FREE STUFF!!! That's right. At a lot of Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror conventions, companies give away free samples to passers by. Or they will raffle free stuff away at any given place and time. Thus by the end of each day most of us will have a bag full of "Con Swag"!!

Speaking of filling my bag, I purchase a bunch of fun stuff today. I start with a funny H.P. Lovecraft Lager T-shirt. Then I move on and pick up the soundtrack to David Lynch's motion picture, Dune. I also score a new PS2 game that was just released for $20 less than store price. Last, but in no means least I pick up two sets of dice. A personal yearly tradition of mine here at GenCon. I leave with a heavy bag and hop on the bus back home. But, I'm not done with GenCon today just yet. I arrive back home, drop off my bag, sit in front of a fan for a few minutes before heading back to GenCon where WOTC hold their annual street party.

(Jeeze, this is getting long already!!! Maybe I should edit it down a bit. Aww, frell it! Only three people will read this thing anyway. On with the show.)

When I arrive at the blocked off street under the conventions center's overpass, where they hold the outside party, I notice complete chaos. There are a few huge lines. I don't know if these are for food or drink or what. I just get in one and ask what it's for. I'm told it's the food line. As I look at the zigzagging, endless line I realize I should have had more than those snacks and soda at the seminar. The line moves slowly and is made a lot worse by the fact that members of Microsoft's publicity team (MS is putting up the money for the party) decide that it would be a great idea to turn chaos into complete bedlam. They start throwing out free t-shirts which not only breaks up any semblance of a line, but creates a small riot as a horde of GenCon attendees rush up for more free swag. Actually, I turn this situation to my favor. After getting hit in the face twice with free t-shirts I join some other people in creating our own food line and after about twenty minutes I reach the "food". Actually it's the last few scraps of taco dip and some olives. I waited in line for about an hour for a drip of taco dip and three olives? Whoopee. I then head to the cocktail line. This one is much quicker and to my delight the beer is free. NOW THAT'S CON SWAG!!!!

I meet up with a couple of people I used to game with when I first started RPGing. We go up to the stage and listen to a band called "Spirit Creek". They sound a lot like "Live" and are heavily into Vampire: The Masquerade LARP (Live Action Role Playing). After their set "Babylon 5" star, Julie Caitlin Brown is scheduled to come up and do an acoustic set. Another little surprise that wasn't in the GenCon book. Cool. I head back to the cocktail bar to get another free beer only to find out that the beer was only free for a couple of hours. I don't mean to look a gift horse in the mouth, but don't you think Mr. Bill Gates could flip the tab on the beer for the whole evening? The guy's richer than god!! Sadly since they were out of food and the beer was no longer free, many attendees took to their own room parties and other soirees within the area. This left about 30 people to watch Julie Caitlin Brown's act.

Ms. Brown's songs were really good. Kind of harder edged, coffee house type stuff. After listening to her lyrics it was obvious she had been screwed over by more than one guy in her life. Perhaps Ms. Caitlin Brown should consider dating some of us con geeks so she wouldn't have that problem. Just kidding. After her short set we decided to head over to the Velvet Room, just down the street where White Wolf Publishing (Creators of Vampire: The Masquerade) were holding a small cocktail party. We walk in and I don't see anyone I know. It's hot and my friends want to head home. They leave and I stay for a beer and some snacks they have out. At least here I got some food.

I then decide to head on down to my favorite bar, the Safe House. With its James Bond / secret hide out motif it's a real big hit with the GenCon crowd every year. I get in with my lifetime membership card and see the place filled with jovial con-ers all dancing, drinking and having a great time. I buy a beer and head out to the dance floor to shake my booty. Being such a horrible, white-boy dancer I usually wouldn't go into a crowd of strangers and dance with them, but these are GenCon people. They don't give a damn who you are, where you're from or what you look like. I doubt that that would have flown well with a snobbish yuppie crowd. I dance for a while and turn to my left only to notice that Julie Caitlin Brown (of "Babylon 5") is five feet away from me shaking her groove thing with some people in her entourage. Pretty cool. At about 1am. I decide to call it a day and stumble home to bed.

Friday, August 3rd, 2001

I wake up in a groggy stupor, do my morning rituals and catch the bus just in time. When I get to the con I head to the dealer room where I people watch and wander about aimlessly. Yawn. I realize it's a theme day, "Fantasy Friday" where they have many attendees dress as their favorite D&D characters. I take some pictures of some of them. I also find out that the first celebrity Q&A takes place in an hour. So I head to the Hyatt's small ballroom to see what's up.

I'm not a big fan of Xena or Hercules at all. In fact when I'm channel surfing and come upon either, it's usually some horrible musical episode and I usually change the channel. But if anyone's seen the two lovely ladies who portray Callisto (Hudson Leik) and Aphrodite (Alexandra Tydings) they'd be nuts not to take a peek in on this Q&A session. The two actresses just walk in, say hello, and conduct a very non-formal Q&A, like they were talking to old friends. Very cool. What was especially cool was Hudson's counter culture attire. She wore a bandanna on her head, studded leather wrist and neck bands, fishnet stockings and knee high combat boots. She explained she'd dressed like this today for fun. She also talked about her trips to Africa and Nepal. Alexandra Tydings talked about her upcoming, time traveling show she's working on with "Babylon 5" alumni, Claudia Christian. Unfortunately, I had to bug out ten minutes early due to another gaming seminar I had to attend. Sorry ladies, the lover-man, Zangz, must leave you.

I head to the Hilton, back to the Mitchell room where our old friend Don is back to give a seminar on Gamemastering and Role-playing. Basically Don regaled us with humorous stories stressing what to do and not to do when you are GM-ing a game.

When it's done I head back to the vendor hall to do more gawking. And I find a few beautiful people to gawk at. Hudson and Alexandra are now at the autograph stage, standing IN FRONT of the table, which many celebs hide behind, while signing autographs. These two ladies seemed to be having a blast. They were hugging their fans and posing for pictures with them and talking to them. These two know how to treat their fans.

My wallet takes another small dent as I buy a CD of creepy mood music called "Realm of Shadows" by the Midnight Syndicate. I plan to start getting into the mood for Halloween in late September. I then head back to the bus that quickly navigates its way through crowded Wisconsin Avenue during rush hour to my humble abode to change quickly for a friend's wedding that took place later that evening. It was a full day indeed.

Thanks for sticking around for part 2. Keep checking back for part 3 coming up pretty soon.

Zangz.