Into the Great Wide Open....

About ten years ago I got up one morning, got into my car and drove into the downtown area. Just for the fun of it, when I spotted a police cruiser up a head of me, I floored it and rear ended him. He quickly gave chase as I blew down the road toward the lakefront. As he chased me, two other police vehicles joined him in the pursuit. As soon as I reached the lakefront, I headed directly to a cliff that overlooked the mass body of water. As the police cars tailed me, I swerved my car just in time to miss flying off of the cliff. The police cars were not that lucky. All three of them flew off of the cliff and into the lake below.

I then drove to a seedy little alley where I waited in my car for the heat to blow over. Once it did I drove to the same side of town where I started the whole original fiasco. And guess what I did then? I slammed into the back end of another police cruiser and started the whole chase all over again.

That was ten years ago. Now, guess what I did just this morning? I found myself on the planet Mars in the not too distant future where we earthlings have been colonizing the planet. I have joined a resistance group who are currently fighting against the militaristic monopoly who have taken over the planet in the name of corporatization. I planted a number of explosive charges onto one of their tanks that was assaulting a colonized suburb of Mars. While being shot at by soldiers, I ducked behind a home and set off the charges then watched as the tank blew into many different pieces. The cool thing was I could have also used a rocket launcher to do the dirty work. Or I could have used a special laser gun that disintegrates it's victims rather than zaps them. Or, I could have blown up a building and had it collapse on top of the tank. So may options.

Am I a nut-case who's already wild imagination has run amok with destructive glee?

No. Of course not. I am speaking of open world / sandbox game-play video games!

Video games were never the same as soon as they started to cater to those of us that enjoy the freedom to do whatever we want to do, when we want to do it, as we explore a vast world with tons of options and the non-linear adventures within it. My first venture into this type of game-play was Grand Theft Auto III. Though it wasn't the first of its kind, it certainly put free roaming and do anything at any time type game-play into the forefront of video games.

The crime simulation game allowed players to get in and out of cars, walk or run up streets, cary and use a variety of different weapons and create general havoc all over the fictional town of the fully realized, three dimensional Liberty City, a city that had three different huge islands where you could speed around in many different cars creating multiple methods of destruction.

The game had a whole series of main missions that you were assigned by your crime-lord bosses. You could choose to go from mission to mission to mission to come to the end of the game, or you could do a mission, then go exploring, do a mission, get yourself into a high speed chase with the police or a rival gang, do a mission, then steal a number of cars for your own private use, do a mission, shoot helicopters out of the sky with your bazooka, etc. You could go hours or even days without doing even one game mission and still feel that you were accomplishing tons of personal objectives.

I played that game for a good six months straight before I even looked at another game. That was the beginning of my obsession with games that had open world capabilities.

The GTA series begat three more games of that caliber, Vice City, San Andreas and the more recently, updated Grand Theft Auto 4.

After the popularity of these open world crime simulations, many game companies and game publishers decided to get in on the action. Within the last decade we've gotten a ton of open world / crime sim games that have included, True Crime: Street of LA, Saints Row, Saints Row 2, The Godfather, Bully , Mercenary and Scarface.

They've also tapped heavily into the fantasy role playing game genre. The Elder Scrolls series of games that originated before GTA on the home PC and then started to hit game counsels are some of my favorite games of all time! The two games that have hit the high marks are Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind and Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (the reason I bought a '360!)

Both these games put players in vastly huge and lavish fantasy worlds that seem to never end. Players take on a first person perspective of a character they can custom generate however they wish. Players can take on the main quest of the game or take on thousands of mini-quests or just roam around the worlds and dungeons grabbing loot and fighting creatures. You can easily play for hours upon hours without touching any of the main quests. Both games took me about six months each to play through. And I'm sure I still haven't discovered quite everything in each of the games.

That's not all. A lot of Sci-Fi games have taken on the open world theme. One of the top such games is Fallout 3, a post apocalyptic tale brought to us from the great minds at Bethesda Softworks, the wonder minds that brought us the Elder Scrolls games! It is another action role playing game that allows players to traverse across the wastelands that were once Washing DC and its suburbs. Again, features such as totally customizable characters and a huge world to discover are in play. It is every bit as good as it's Elder Scroll game predecessors!

That's not the only Sci-Fi open world game out there. There's also one of my personal favorite addictions called Crackdown. The futuristic super cop action game may not be as long and epic as most open world games should be, but it's certainly a time sucker. There's also the recently released Red Faction: Guerrilla, a very addictive game that takes place on the surface of the planet Mars. I've even temporarily put down Dragon Age: Origins to play this puppy for the last few weeks!

One pretty cool feature that is a part of open world gaming is that your character's actions help decide the outcome of the games. You can choose to play it as the good guy hero or play as a murderous villain. How you play may result in how the game ends or how other characters within the game react to you. These features really make you feel like you are a part of the world and story being told in it! That's a great attribute compared to anything a first person shooter or platformer has to offer!

Now, as wonderful as I find most of these open world games, I do find that there are a few hitches in plying them. Sometimes they can get repetitive. When designers try and create a huge vast world, they end up relying on a lot of the same scenery, just put in different patterns in different areas. This can become visually tiresome at times. Sometimes quests can be pretty repetitive also. You can only retrieve the same treasure or rescue the same prisoner so many times before you get so used to it and any surprises are thrown out the window after a while. Sometimes the areas of the huge world are separated by long and tedious load times.

But, admittedly that's nit-picking. I'm hardly tiring of open world games. I used to be heavily into first person shooters and action games. But, those games were quite linear and I found myself playing though them within 8 to 12 hours. If I'm going to be plunking down $60 per game, I'm going to want to get as much bang for my buck as possible. Economically, these are not the times to waste a chunk of change on only 12 hours of gameplay! If I find a totally immersive game where I can do anything I want in the huge world that the publishers have created and can play it beyond 6 months, I find myself quite fortunate!

Exploration is another big plus for these games. What new and exciting area, dungeon, swamp, forest, castle, ruins, city or planet can I traverse and find interesting objectives and possibly treasure in? It could be quite limitless.

What is the next big open world game I'm looking forward to? It's a western theme game brought to us from Rockstar Games, the people who brought us the Grand Theft Auto series. It is a game called Red Dead Redemption. It's release is just under two months away. If you just watched the trailer I linked to, you'll understand the excitement.

I'm hoping that open world video games don't start to get old and wear out their welcome. I'm hoping they find ways to expand and enhance the already immersive experience that they provide. How creators are going to do that, I have no clue since I'm already finding myself in five hour stints of playing and 6 months worth of playing just one game in games that are already released. It can only get better from here!

That's it for me today. I'm hoping to get more blogging done in the future. We'll see how that goes.

Until next time, stay vertical!

Zangz.

The Great Mind that is.... Alan Garner, The One Man Wolf Pack.

If you haven't seen The hangover, this post is stuffed full with spoilers. Read at your own risk!

"I'd like to say something that I've prepared tonight....Hello. How about that ride in? I guess that's why they call it Sin City. Ha, ha, ha.

You guys might not know this, but I consider myself a one man wolf pack. But, when my sister brought Doug home, I knew he was one of my own. And the wolf pack grew by one. So there were two... two of us in the wolf pack. I was alone first in the pack. And then Doug joined in later.

And six months ago when Doug introduced me to you guys, I thought, 'Wait a second! Could it be true?' And now I know for sure. I just added two more guys to my wolf pack.

Four of us wolves running around the desert together in Las Vegas, looking for strippers and cocaine. So tonight I make a toast.....Blood Brothers!"

Alan Garner as played by Zach Galifianakis
in the 2009 film, The Hangover.

Are these the words of a sad, disturbed, goofballish psychopath, or the brilliant musings of a great, misunderstood mind? I'd like to vote for the later.

It is very easy to take in the character of Alan from the comedic masterpiece film called,The Hangover, and misjudge him as simply some sort of social misfit who's oddities may seem to lean toward pure dangerous and disturbing behavior.

But, lets try and forget about the suggested court order that keeps him 200 feet away from schools and Chucky Cheese restaurants. Lets sweep under the rug of the fact that he secretly drugged his fellow bachelor party buddies with roofies.....that he thought was Ecstasy. Lets turn a cheek to his belief that "enjoying one's self" on an airplane is perfectly normal behavior. Now let's look at Alan as a man living in his own world and grabbing it by the nards.

Simply put, Alan is living life on his own terms. He's shunning the establishment while experimenting with social culture. He looks at life very simplistically and doesn't care what others think. Actually, he's quite oblivious to how we so called "normal" folk view the world around us.

His simpleton, child like behavior should be cheered on rather than feared. Heck, if most of us were judged by our child like behavior, we'd all be round up and trhown into the rubber room. How many of us that are in our 40's still play video games, still read comic books, still have boatloads of action figures in our bedrooms, still weep in the loneliness of the dark cold nights..........um............

Ya know, I better quit this whole Alan argument right here and now. Besides I had no idea where I was going to go with this post anyway. So much for a healthy free writing exercise.


On to some quick little notes of geekdom before I wrap this puppy up.

I have gotten a new / used car after a reh-tard slammed into the back end of my old car who I named Shirley. I have considered naming the new one Dita since I'd kind of like to stay with the whole sexy, counter culture iconic goth chick theme. We'll see if this sticks.

I'm still wonderfully plodding through about 4 to 5 video games and haven't even gotten to Mass Effect 2 yet. But, rest assured I'll get to it at some point.

Some of my favorite shows are in full swing on the old boob-tube. 24, Lost and Chuck are all looking pretty fab this season.

What am I currently listening to? You always seem to ask that. I just picked up "Mechanize" by the newly reformed Fear Factory. It's as heavy as a madre fracker!!! It's also has some nice doses of industrialized melody thown in there. A must have for headbangers!

I'm going to call it here, kids. I have to grab a bite then prep to go out and see my buddy, Mr. Salty, play in one of the many bands he winds up in tonight.

Until next time, god bless all of the Alan's of the world and stay vertical.

Zangz.

Starting 2010 with a HUGE BANG....and crash...and wreckage...and suckage.

First Post of the new decade!

If you will recall, in my last post of 2009 I stated, "May 2010 be a lucrative, happy, rejuvenatory, healing year for us all!"

What the hell was I thinking when I posted that?! Was I trying to temp fate? Was I teasing it, poking it with a sharp stick or perhaps daring it to frack with me as best it could?

Well dear friends, I received further proof that there truly is no god. Long story short, late last week my car of 9 years got totaled when a young, inattentive driver slammed into the back end of it while I was stopped and waiting for oncoming traffic so I could make a turn.

I guess what's most important is the fact that I got out of it pretty unscathed. I suffered only achy legs and shoulders the next day. But, who knows, with my frackin' luck I could be hemorrhaging somewhere in body right now and not even know it. I could be a goner by tomorrow morning. This could be the last post of Zangz's Blog of Geekdom that there will ever be (loud cheer of approval from the crowd).

So, sadly my car, who I named Shirley a long time ago, is no more. She's gone. I must say, I did have a slight lump in my throat as I emptied her of all of my personal effects at the tow yard. Her back end was nothing more than a indentation of crushed metal. She is now a mass of lifeless waste where at one time Shirley was my daily transportation taking me hither and yon, through hill and dale, to work, friends' houses and to Haunted Attractions during Halloween season. Her CD palyer would blast Type O Negative and Nightwish while I cruised down the highway. That's all gone now. Shirley will be missed.

After a bit of a tense period when the driver of the car who hit me took his sweet frackin' time to report and acknowledge the accident happened to his insurance firm, it looks like they'll be cutting me a check. Sadly, it won't be for what I had hoped for.

But, thanks to my Bro-In-Law who's in the automotive field, I will have a new Zangzmobile by the weekend. This one has all the modifications and accessories that made me fall in love with Shirley so much. Moon roof, electronic windows and locks, smoke screen, automatic guns in the headlights and rear end oil slick. Cool stuff like that.


The only other stuff I have to yap on about is the crazy amount of video games I have to play. Thanks to X-Mas and B-Day, I made out with a ton of games and gift cards to spend on.

So now I have Dragon Age: Origins, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, Red Faction: Guerrilla and now Mass Effect 2 to play through. I should be good for gaming on into Summer.

Short but sweet, that's what this post shall be. So take care and watch your rear view mirrors.

Zangz.

Zangz's Best of 2009!

Last Blog Post of the Decade!

It seems that in the last blog post of every year I post something to the effect of, "Let's hope that the new year doesn't suck as much as this past year did".

But, every year seems to surpass the previous in pure crap-a-tude! This year was marred by a lot of people close to myself and my family dealing with some unfair sucker punches that life tends to deal out. Sicknesses, unemployment, bad investments, economic instability, car accidents and a whole plethora of corn filled crapolla has plagued many in our lives in '09.

So this year I'm hesitant to put down this past year and wish for a better upcoming year, because it seems to put some bad voodoo vibes out there.

Thus, the best I can come up with is this....

May 2010 be a lucrative, happy, rejuvenatory, healing year for us all!

Having said that, I do realize that not everything was totally poopville in 2009. Here are a couple of my favorite things that I either discovered or came upon this past year.....

Best Movie of 2009:

Star Trek

The newly revamped telling of the classic TV series that was directed by geek icon J.J. Abrams really put the Star Trek franchise back on the map after it was starting to disappear and dwindle into nothingness. The very clever storytelling, character development and cool as frell action sequences have more than made up for the last few Next Generation movies that Hollywood was drenning out! And bravo to Chris Pine for really capturing a cocky, young Captain James Tiberius Kirk so perfectly. You can read my review on the film HERE and you can watch the trailer for it HERE.

Best Comedy of 2009:

The Hangover

Ok, I'll admit it. There's a heck of a lot of bathroom humor in this tale of four guys going to Vegas for a bachelor party and after a drunken night of debauchery they lose the bachelor. The day after plays out like a real warped comedy mystery. There are scenes in this movie that will have you laughing out loud and then realizing what a disturbing person you must be for laughing at them. Zach Galifianakis was the stand out for me as the awkward, slightly off kilter future brother in law. The character harnesses the biggest laughs in the film with his dimwitted and a bit creepy persona (just why does he have a court order to stay far away from high school?) Check out the trailer HERE.

Best Book Read in 2009

Devil May Care
by Sabastian Faulks

I didn't read a lot this year. In fact I started about three or four different books, but only completed this one, thus, sadly, it's may favorite of the year...sigh. Actually it's not too bad and as a James Bond novel, it reads pretty fast with a lot of action in it. Faulks brings the characer of James Bond back to the cold war era to fight against another odd, megalomaniac arms dealer. Faulks adhears to a lot of the James Bond trappings that fans of the character really enjoy. Exotic locations, beautiful women and nasty villains are all handled quite capably here. And it is not a long grueling book to read through as some of John Gardner's novels were. It is quick, action packed and to the point. Though my favorite Bond novelist is still Raymond Benson, I'm hoping the Flemming estate will stick with Faulks for a few more novels. You can see a bit about it HERE.

Best Web Series

The Guild

This independent web series created by actress Felicia Day is about a group of online gamers who spend hours upon hours playing World of Warcraft. The comedy is more about their social lives (or sever lack there of) than the game itself. The episodes are short so it's a good "go to" if you've come home from a stressful day at work for a couple of hearty chuckles. Click on "The Guild" above to see episodes!

Best Haunted Attraction Visited in 2009

Hartford Jaceey's Haunted House

They've won over Terror on Rural Street for the 2nd year running. It's all about the ridicules amounts of attention to detail they put into the show.

And last, but in no means least....

Best Video Game of 2009

Borderlands

Last year Fallout 3 got the honors and this year I've been playing a heck of a lot of Fallout 3 also. But, I didn't want to be redundant and this year I was pretty addicted to Borderlands! In a nutshell, it takes place on a post apocalyptic planet called Pandora where bandits, mutants and renagades run rampant trying to find "The Vault", a hidden place with a possible alien cache of great wealth. You play one of three types of fighter classes you can pick from. From then on it's a wonderful cell shaded, open sand boxed, first person shooter that has a huge wealth of weapons and stash you can switch out and sell.

There's also a good dose of RPG character progression which adds to the already addictive amount of different fire arms that are all over the planet. It wasn't the most perfect RPG game created. Once you find "The Vault" it's not all it's cracked up to be and you find yourself up against a pretty nasty boss where you'll find the learning curve for defeating bad guys has gone through the roof. That last fight can be pretty frustrating. Once you beat the last boss, you're forced to watch the credits. Then after that you are able to go back and still play the game without any quests being given to you. You can still trudge about the world taking on bad guys and even go up against some of the minor bosses again.

Although it had over 100 side quests in addition to the main quest, the game could have been a bit longer and more epic. When you want to put an RPG video game out there, you'd better be ready to be compared to the big boys. Anyone who's played the aforementioned Fallout 3 or games like Morrowind and Oblivion have experienced truly epic games. Borderlands is kind of short in comparison. But it's addictive gameplay makes up for it. I see myself playing through the game again some point down the road. I had that much fun with it.

See gameplay HERE.

Consider that my review of Borderlands I've been promising.


I got Dragonage: Origins and Sacred 2 for X-Mas and I'll let you now how they play out. The next big game I'm looking forward to is Mass Effect 2. It comes out not too far off from my birthday, so I think I know what some birthday money is going to buy.

I'm not promising anything, but several posts back I've alluded to my Buddy Bruce providing us with a review of this past summer's DragonCon '09. Well, his computer did some serious crashing, but things are back up to normal now and he actually hopes to have it ready soon!

That's it for the posts of 2009. Remember to stay safe tonight and stay vertical.

Until next year, see ya.

Zangz.

Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men, yada, yada, yada......

Here it is, X-Mas Eve day, and there's just one thing that is on my mind right now...."JEEBUS is that Iron Man 2 trailer looking pretty darned awesome!!!" If they give the care and love of the character and comic that they infused into the first movie into the second, then all will be alright with the world.

I know. Commenting about the new Iron Man trailer seems a bit shallow when we should all be focusing on Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men, yada, yada, yada and whateverthehellother X-Mas pleasantries you want to toss in there. They seem ironic when put up against the modern day backdrop of stores and streets filled with obnoxious people all knocking each other down and running each other off of the roads to get there hands on a gift for the already spoiled little Johnny-Brat-Face.

Are you waiting for the X-Mas spirit to manifest itself on this post yet? Keep reading...

I know I've joked on this blog before about presents being the major deal of X-Mas just to stir the pot a bit. But, for me the real deal of the holidays is being with family and friends! That's all there is to it for me. And that alone is a big, major, hairy deal to me.

I take this time to celebrate in a personal manor how important friends and family are to me. Out there in the shallow, yuppie world of normalcy, geeks like myself are thrown to wolves. If it weren't for the acceptance of my closest friends and the support of my family, I'd be in over my head trying to fit into a world where the themes of the fantastic are constantly under conservative scrutiny.

The acceptance and support I get from them are the best X-Mas gifts I can ask for. The best thing is that I don't have to ask for them. They are given unconditionally.

The next couple of days will be about family, friends, good company, great food, good drink, and both giving and receiving some presents as well as time away from the hectic work schedule.

Here's hoping that the rest of you all get to have the same things this holiday season!


That's about as festive as it's going to get in my Blog of Geekdom. So on to more geeky things....

I've almost come to the very end of Borderlands for the Xbox 360. I'll have a full review once I'm done, but so far thumbs up! After that I'll go back to completing the additional content from Fallout 3. Hopefully I'll find a new game in my X-Mas stocking tonight so I have something after Fallout 3. If not, a little X-Mas money may have to go toward either Sacred 2 or Dragonage: Origins. We'll see.

As far as television viewing, I'm catching up on the two season HBO epic, ROME on DVD. I'm pretty hooked as they spare no expense in showing how brutal it was during the rise of the Roman empire.

That's about all there is for this X-Mas Eve day post of my Blog of Geekdom. So I'll end it on this holiday wish to you and yours...

May the fat man get you some groovy swag this holiday season!

Merry X-Mas!

Zangz.

Jack Frost Can Suck It!

Ho, ho, frackin' ho.

The X-Mas season continues it's plague across the lands as arctic temperatures linger about, freezing the nards of all man, woman and child. Well, maybe not "woman". Well, maybe some women....who have just had that surgery.

In any case, it's cold as hell, making the chore of going out X-Mas shopping beyond the point of "less appealing". It downright blows. Jack Frost can go pound sand! I love giving loved ones cool stuff, but schlepping my way through nasty crowds in freezing cold temperatures sure doesn't bring me the yuletide joy.

But, that's exactly what I've been doing for the last couple of days, God bless my cold, anti-X-Mas heart.

I know what you're all thinking, "Zangz, are you so cold inside that you can't even appreciate the little things that give great joy during the holiday season?"

You may be surprised at my answer. I most certainly can. Just last weekend I had two tree decorating sessions that I really enjoyed.

The first one was at my sister's place. My Bro-In-Law feigned a hurt finger and was unable to put ornaments up on the tree. So I had to step in and save the day. As a child, tree decorating was "the bomb" (kids still use that kind of cool jargon, don't they?). I loved pulling out all of the home made decorations that my mom and Grandma made as well as the store bought favorites and picking the places on the tree that I would put them.

As an adult, tree decorating is at the same level of fun as being pulled through the cobble stoned streets of Charles Dickens' Victorian England on the ground by a team of wild horses. But, for some reason, I was kind of into it. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (featuring a very young Big Bang Theory star Johnny Galecki as Rusty Griswald) was playing on the tube as my mom, sis and myself put the ornaments up on the tree. In some weird way, after a crazy week at work, it helped relax me.

Then the next night I was over at the home of some close friends that are going through a bit of a challenging and tough time. My very close friend Iris Von Beaverhousen is currently kicking cancer's ass. I had the utmost privilege to watch her and her faithful manservant, and fellow friend, Roberto, put up their tree decorations with the ever so precocious 4 year old, "G-Love".

As they let me watch their collection of DVR'd episodes of Ace of Cakes, I would glance over at the family putting up the tree and get a warm, cozy, happy-time feeling ooze over me. Iris would be putting up her "Millennium Falcon flying over Mos Eisley" ornament while Roberto would have his Darth Vader ornament in hand ever ready to plunk it upon the appropriate branch. And G-Love would be wearing her Santa hat and helping Mom and Dad with the whole artistic endeavor the X-Mas tree is. Perhaps X-Mas doesn't suck half as much as I blog about. Perhaps there is hope for humanity during the holiday season. Just perhaps.

I did buy myself a little X-Mas present. Usually I wait until a few days before the new year to buy a calendar. That's when they all go to half price. But, while perusing through a local bookstore I came upon a calendar I just had to grab right away. I'm now the proud owner of the "Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog" 2010 calendar. How was I to resist a calendar that features both Falicia Day and Liz Vassey (Capt. Liberty from The Tick TV show).

If you're not up to speed on what Dr. Horrible is all about, you need to give yourself a bit of a treat and check it all out here. It's a heck of a fun time, even though the ending is bittersweet.

Also check out the music of The Bronx Casket Company. Being a big fan of Type O Negative as I am, a friend at work thought I might be interested in this band. So I checked them out and really enjoy what I hear. Very dark and yet melodic. Check them out, won't you?

That's going to be it for this post. Until next time, stay vertical and happy holidays (I threw up a little bit in my mouth just typing that)....humbug.

Zangz.

The 2nd Annual, Zangz's X-mas / B-Day Present Wish List.

Call me shallow as heck, but the only really good thing about X-mas is the gifts. Giving them as well as receiving them....I guess.

Unfortunately, the curse that is the holiday season has once again reared it's ugly head and affected our family's gift giving organization.

First, due to a supreme lack of communication upon both my sister's and my part, we both got our mom the same gift. A DVD player that she has been heavy-handedly hinting to the both of us that she wanted. Luckily I was able to guilt my sister into returning hers. But now there's another problem.

I was planning on posting this blog so my family had a place to find out what I wanted for X-Mas. But, I get this call from my Mom earlier this evening when I'm out and about and the conversation goes something like this....

Mom: I need your X-mas gift list now. Me and your sister are going shopping tomorrow.

Me: I hate X-mas so I really haven't thought too hard about it. I was going to post it on my blog this weekend.

Mom: I never read your blog (big surprise) and technology frightens me. Aren't there viruses on blogs? Just email it to me as soon as you get home.

Me: I have a few ideas, but nothing concrete yet. Can't you wait until the weekend?

Mom: Your sister and I are going out tomorrow, I'm not going to have time to read your blog in the morning to get a bunch of viruses. I need it emailed to me as soon as possible.

Me: I'll see what I can do, but you'd have a far better idea of what I'd like if you'd just be patient and read my blog tomorrow.

Mom: I can't be patient and get a bunch of viruses! I need it so I can print it out quickly. I don't want to visit a virus ridden website!

Me: There are no viruses on the blog, Ma!

Mom: Then why can't I get channel 12 in on my TV?

Me: What?

Mom: Ever since I visited your blog the last time, I can't get in channel 12 on this whole new fangled digital TV stuff.

Me: Um, Mom. That has nothing to do with my blog. That's has to do with the new digital adapters that you put in once the TV stations went digital.

Mom: Well, I'm just saying, technology is all catywhompass. Also, I can't read your blog since the lettering is too small. Just email me your list.

At least that's the way I remember the conversation going down. So I relented and sent her a half-assed list. But for a far more detailed affair please peruse the items below.

RULES AND REGULATIONS: This is not just a X-Mas list it's also a B-Day list since my B-Day comes less than a month after X-Mas and I know people a conserving funds during the crappy economic times. I DO NOT expect to get all of this stuff, but I'm giving everybody a plethora of stuff to choose from. These are in no particular order of want or need. Here we go.....


VIDEO GAMES:

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel for the Xbox 360 - Another open world action fantasy RPG. I've heard that it's pretty good. But, not a knock out of the park. That's why I don't want to spend my own money on it. (for review view here)
Dragon Age: Origins for the Xbox 360 - Same as above, but got far better reviews. It's not quite an action RPG. It has a bit of timed strategy involved in its combat, much like Mass Effect. But reviews have been pretty excellent for this game. (for review view HERE.)

DVDs:

Since I already bought myself the new Star Trek movie, there's one other I'd like to have in my collection...

The Hangover - Funniest movie I've seen all year. I can't not see this puppy finding it's way into my DVD library. See the trailer HERE.

CLOTHES:
I've never been a big "clothes for gifts" fan. My sister does pretty darn good in choosing stuff for me. But it's always ironing intensive. So here's another idea.

Here are a bunch of websites that have some of the coolest frackin' shirts I've ever seen!

http://www.fright-rags.com/

http://www.lastexittonowhere.com/

http://www.bustedtees.com/

Here are a few that stand out from them.....

The Slaughtered Lamb (reference to American Werewolf in London)
Pork Chop Express (reference to Big Trouble in Little China)
Haddonfield (reference to Halloween)
Nexus-6 (reference to Blade Runner)
Tyrell (another reference to Blade Runner)
Main Force Patrol (reference to Mad Max/Road Warrior)
Miskatonic U (reference to Call of Cthulhu)
Zombie
Zuul
Obey
Brewster
Omen
Nosferatu
Gates
More Cowbell
Brains
What the Frak
That's How I Roll
Solo
Einstien
St. Dorothy (reference to Anchorman)
Deathstar
Strangers
Watchmen

Yep. That's a hell of a lot of T-Shirts. I guess that geek culture is growing in leaps and bounds. I know some of them are from an English website, but a guy can dream can't he. Isn't this the time for X-Mas magic? C'mon, people! Work for it!!!!

Shoes - Something between a work shoe and semi formal. Skeechters has some good stuff at times.

Winter Gloves - Heck, a black leather pair that isn't insanely cumbersome and doesn't fall apart at the slightest hint of manual labor would be fine.

Those last two picks are not at the top of my list! Check the T-shirts list first.

OTHER STUFF:

Money is always good. I can use it toward things. I'm thinking about purchasing a smart phone since I haven't had a really good organizer in years. I'm currently looking at either this or this or this. Or this.

Cologne - I haven't had a really good cologne in a long time. I heavily rely on underarm deodorant these days. That alone will not placate the ladies.

That's it for now. Start budgeting since I am a bit of an expensive beeeoootch.

I kid. Get me whatever the heck you feel like for my X-mas / B-day. I'll even be happy if I get a lump of coal. Being able to spend X-Mas with friends and family is always the ultimate gift (ass kissing alert.)

Until next time. Stay vertical!!

P.S. The script in this blog is bigger than usual so my mom can actually read it....sigh.

Zangz.

The Wrath of the Holiday Season....

I promised myself that after my plethora of Halloween influenced posts that I wouldn't have the traditional "Bah-Humbug" attitude in my blogging tone that I usually do during the holiday season.

That promise pretty much went to complete hell after this week. My strong belief in the fact that people turn more rude, obnoxious and greedy once the holiday season draws near has been proven time and time again.

Within the last week I've been stressed out with a unrealistic workload, I've been almost run over by some yuppie ditz in her silver sports car in the parking lot of a Best Buy and my TV watching seems to have been jammed packed with X-mas commercials that popped up THE DAY AFTER Halloween.

BAH HUMBUG indeed!

Now, believe it or not, despite my anti-seasons greetings attitude, I do find myself actually being quite thankful for some things that are currently going on.

First and foremost, I'm thankful that a very good friend of mine is beating her battle with cancer. I'm also thankful that my very good friend, Goof, will be in town with his family and I'll be seeing them this Thanksgiving weekend. I'm also thankful that I have a pretty decent network of friends and family.

So there are a few shreds of light shining through the tares in the dark fabric that is the Holiday Season.

Speaking of family, I'm sure my sister, Dizzy Lizzy, has been having a blast this week since it is NEW-MOON-PALOOZA week. Though my sister is in her 30's she communes with the legion of tweener girls that are all broiled up over the latest pretty boy glimmering vampire movie that was released to some pretty bad reviews this week.

Much as I did with the Star Wars Prequels, my sister immersed herself the whole midnight showing experience. Then she saw it a second time later in the weekend. Though I'm not a big fan of sappy, teenybopper Twilight "vampire" stories by author Stephenie Meyer and the movies based on her novels, I do like to see my sister geek out over something that is somewhat genre related.

On to something completely different....

This past week saw the DVD release of last summer's big blockbuster, Sci-Fi piece of pure joy called Star Trek. A rebooting of the original TV series. Of course I went and grabbed that baby off the store shelf. When I did so, I realized that this would be the first Star Trek movie that I'd have in my whole DVD collection. That's a pretty sad state of affairs for me since I pride myself on being a geek. Luckily, right there next to the Star Trek DVD was a three disc compilation of three of the best Kirk & Spock movies, The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home.

This morning when I got out of bed I popped into the DVD player The Wrath of Khan. It had been a while since I last saw it. Quite a few years in fact. So this morning a got a full viewing in. I do have to say that this really is the best Star Trek movie out of all of them. Sure, the latest reboot is quite spectacular and was my favorite movie of 2009, but there's a few things about Wrath of Khan that really hits the Star Trek spot.

First of all you have a very clever script. Back in 1982, who would have thought that taking an episode from the original 60's TV series ("Space Seed") and building upon it to create an entire motion picture would have worked so well. You also have the fortification of the relationship between Spock and Kirk. You get to see just how close their friendship is through Spock's ultimate sacrifice.

Second, you have the larger than life villain of Khan Noonien Signh, a genetically enhanced superhuman who was exiled by Capt. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise on a doomed planet in the original TV series only to escape the planet and seek revenge on the Enterprise in the film. The role is wonderfully filled by the late, great Ricardo Montalban. Montalban plays the role with great relish and vigor. Some may say his performance was a bit over the top, but for a character who was not only abandoned on a soon to be desolate planet for 15 years and lose the love of his life there, I'd be a bit over the top also. Besides his performance is a perfect match to William Shatner's big as life Captain James T. Kirk.

Third, you get a pretty decent space ship battle. It's not a crazy, fast as light dog fight, like we've seen in the Star Wars films. It is a slow, brutal, methodical, ship to ship blast-fest. It's very reminiscent of the old pirate ship battles out on the seven seas.

I'm glad I watched it again! I keep forgetting what a kick-A movie that is. Here's a clip of one of the more famous scenes in the movie.

As for other viewing pleasures, I've been renting the third season of Dexter (Excellent!), the first season of Rome (Pretty darned entertaining!) and hopefully soon True Blood (Far more vampirerific than the above mentioned series.)

As for video gaming, when I've had time, I've delved deeply into Borderlands (see gameplay here). Even though it's a first person shooter, it has the same type of addiction level as a game like Diablo. There's a lot of loot to collect and skills to build up. It's pretty friggin' cool so far. I'm just hoping it going to be quite epic and long.

I'm also looking forward to Mass Effect II that's coming out soon.

That's all there is for now. If I don't post here before Thanksgiving have a happy turkey day!

Zangz.

Things That Go Bump In The Night.....

"From ghoulies and ghosties And long-leggedy beasties And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!"

- Taken from a Traditional Scottish Prayer

I left my bedroom window open a crack last night to freshen up the room a bit. I awoke to a chill slowly funneling through the window opening. This wasn't the usual bitter morning cold that can pinch us on a late autumn day. This was a forewarning. This was communication.

This was Them telling me, "We're here! This is our day! Not yours!"

I looked out my window to see the early morning dark clouds move along the sky as if they had a life of their own. The wind howled between the buildings down my avenue. The leaves flew in circular motions up and off of the ground.

This very day and night truly does belong to Them.

And who are these "Them"? For they are dead things, creepy things, rotting things, things with scales, things with fangs, things that moan, growl and snarl from the shadows. They are disembodied whispers coming from the corners of a dark room. They are the things you can't see, but know are close by.

For the last several weeks the doorway between the worlds of the living and the dead has slowly been creaking open and today is the doors are torn off of their hinges with spirits and creatures from the netherworld running freely amongst the living.

Take heed! Quickly carve that Jack-O-Lantern and put it in the window to ward them off. Or you can dress up as one of them to blend in with the dead.

It will be the witching hour, midnight tonight, when they will be called back to the world of the unknown and the door will be sealed for another year and we living humans will have safety from the dead.

As a special Halloween treat, for those of you who maybe didn't get a chance to visit local Haunted Attractions this year, here are some YouTube links to videos on some of the nation's best Haunted Houses! Each of them are 5 to 8 minutes each, so you have a good hour to peruse some pretty impressive haunts! Enjoy.....

THRILLVANIA
CREEPYWORLD
BATES MOTEL
FIELD OF SCREAMS

NETHERWORLD
GOATMAN HOLLOW
SPOOKYWOODS

That's about it for me today. Please have a very safe and downright spooky Halloween!

Zangz.

A Haunted Concert at a Haunted Venue by a Haunting Band

Last night my favorite band, Type O Negative rolled on into town. It was one show of a very special 12 city Halloween tour that they occasionally venture on during October of certain years. There's one venue in particular they play every time they tour. It's called The Rave and it's housed in an old building called The Eagles Club.

The big, looming building was constructed in the 1920's as an athletic club that would also have grand functions like ballroom dances and diners. Once the athletic club closed, it became a shelter for men for a short spell. Once the big haired 80's hit the building started to host rock concerts in the ballroom. In fact a few of my first concerts were in this venue including Adam Ant with INXS opening as well as a double headlining show of Metallica & W.A.S.P. with Armored Saint opening the show. It has now opened a few more theaters within the venue. There's a smaller hall called The Rave Hall. This is where Type O always perform. Then there's the big Eagle's Ballroom on the 3rd floor. The lower floor houses a much smaller club hall as well as a vacant and locked up old swimming pool. So a lot can go on in one evening at this one establishment.

But, once the fans have left and the bands have loaded up their gear and there's a small smattering of employees left to do some last minute clean up, that is when very odd and downright spooky things can happen.

Witnesses have reported that there seems to be a group of children who haunt the halls of The Rave. Disembodied voices of children both playing and crying can be heard when the venue is near empty. The entities of the children all playing together have actually been seen by employees. There's also a ghostly little girl who wonders about the basement giving witnesses a cold feeling of dread before she manifests. Creeeeepy. Buahahahahaha!

That's not all! Many other odd occurrences take place when the venue is near empty. Sightings of Shadow People, feelings of cold spots, inexplicable negative feelings and the sounds of foot steps seem to flow through the building.

There's one particular ghost that seems to like to watch bands do their sound checks and rehearse. Band members have spotted a dark figure seem to peer at them from a balcony or side of a stage and then the entity disappears suddenly. There are those that believe that it may be the ghost of the late Buddy Holly who enjoys watching from the shadows. Apparently, Buddy Holly played his last concert at the venue before he died in a plane crash.

When I attended ZombieConX a few weeks back, I went to a panel discussion given by The Wisconsin Paranormal Investigators. One of the subjects that came up was famous Milwaukee haunts. The Rave was one of the first to be mentioned. One of the people in the crowd used to do work there and he said that he'd show up when hardly anybody was there to set up equipment. He then went on to say that there would be a major feeling that he was being watched even though he was the only one in the room.

I've been to this venue for concerts about 12 times in my entire life and sadly the only ghoulish spooks I've ever seen here are Type O Negative.

And that, my friends, just made a great segue to my review of Type O Negative's All Hallows Evil Tour '09 show at The Rave....

Once I entered the spooky old venue I bellied up to the bar where, beerwise, they were sadly only selling $7 domestic swill. It's a Rock Club. What should have I expected? I hopped up on a stool and begrudgingly ordered an MGD. I sat and enjoyed the Goth-Metal band that was playing in the bar lounge area since security weren't opening the Rave hall doors for the main concert yet. I wish I could remember the name of the band that was playing as they weren't too bad and had a pretty mysterious and sultry red head as their singer/keyboardist. Ok, ok. I'll admit it. I'm still a creepy old geeky dude.

Soon after the bar band were done the main doors opened and I got myself a Type O tour shirt (for the remainder of this review Type O Negative will be referred to as either "Type O" or "TON" 'cause I'm a lazy blogger).

Pickings for merchandise were quite slim since this was the second to last show of the tour. With T-shirt in hand I once again got my seat up in the balcony since I'm way too friggin' old to deal with the moshing or body passing that occurs on the floor level of the hall. The balcony area (costing an extra $5) also had it's own bar that in years past had a little more of a variety of beers. But this time around it was the same domestic swill that was at the lower bar. An MGD was once again begrudgingly purchased and sat at my seat awaiting the first act to hit the stage.

After I did some serious Goth kid watching the lights went down and Seventh Void came on. Seventh Void features two of the members of Type O, Kenny Hickey on guitar and lead vocals and Johnny Kelly on drums. This four piece sounds far more energetic live in concert than they do on their CD. Their other guitarist is incredibly lively on stage, bounding and dancing around as he strums away. Seventh Void's real strength is in a live show!

After a very quick set change the second openers for the night came on. Destrophy are a band out of Des Moines, IA that plays a powerful, yet melodic kind of Metal. I liked them a lot and they had one heck of an entertaining drummer who was swinging the sticks all over the place never missing, a beat. I may have to pick up their CD!

Once they finished their set a real cool geeky moment happened to me. I went up to the bar for another beer. I was wearing my old, black leather motorcycle jacket that I've had for over 20 years now. It's pretty worn but, I have a cool patch of the Galactic Empire's symbol form Star Wars on the arm of the jacket. I also have adorned the lapels of the jacket with pins of Boba Fett's Mandalorian symbol and Death's Head (I'm not Wikki-ing all of that. If you don't know Star Wars, you don't know $#!+). The guy who came up next to me as I was ordering the beer looked at the patch and buttons and told the bartender to get me a shot of JD on him. Apparently he was impressed that there was a fellow SW fan there wearing his fandom on his jacket. Way cool!!!

I have to give props to the road crew on this tour. Usually it takes a good 30 to 45 minutes to tear down one band and set up another, but these people were quick! After fifteen minutes the lights went down for the headliners, Type O!

Over the speaker system the into tape was playing the them song to The Munsters as the gruesome foursome took to the stage. The intro stopped, the lights came on and TON slam into one of my faves, "Dead Again"! And then they merged right into another one of my faves, "Hey Bacchus". It was a great start to a show that just kept moving with dark energy. Sometimes when they tour, their set list is heavy with a lot of their older, more plodding songs. But this time around they seemed to focus on their songs that have both a lot of energy and melody. Highlights included, "Halloween in Heaven", "Love you to Death" and of course the concert ending "Black #1". They really seemed to be in the spirit, healthy and pretty energetic on stage this tour. This was one of my top 3 shows of all the times I've seen them live!

Tall and Lurch-like Peter Steele (vocalist/main songwriter/bassist) didn't talk to the crowd too much this time, but when he did he seemed to be in very good spirits.

Kenny Hickey and Johnny Kelly didn't seem slowed down or tired from Seventh Void's earlier set. they were just as up for some headbanging as everybody else.

The stage set was nothing special. Just their banners and flags hanging from speakers and the back drop.

There was a very notable difference in this TON tour than in years past. Keyboardist, Josh Silver, is passing on this tour to continue his EMT schooling. He will return for future albums and tours. In the meantime TON got Scott Warren who's usual gig is with Dio and Heaven and Hell (aka: Ronnie James Dio lead Black Sabbath). Though Josh's flipping off the audience and waving around his big curly locks was missed by all, Warren seemed to more than capable in keeping up with all of the TON songs that evening.

The set list (as best as I can recall... after the shot of JD) was as follows.....

Intro - The Munsters theme.
1. Dead Again
2. Hey Bacchus
3. NIB (Black Sabbath cover)
4. Halloween in Heaven
5. Prophets of Doom
6. Love You to Death
7. Wolf Moon
8. Anesthesia
9. World Coming Down
Encore
10. Black #1.

Ten songs may seem like a short show, but you have to remember Type O songs can last anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 minutes.

Would I have liked to hear a couple more of TON's Halloween themed songs in the show? Heck yeh! After all it was a Halloween tour. It would have been nice to here "Creepy Green Light" or "All Hallows Eve" thrown into the mix. But that's the only minor complaint I have.

This was one of TON's best shows here in Milwaukee yet. It was a tight set that flowed really well and was very energetic. Though I may have to wait another few years for a new CD and tour, it will be worth the wait!


Here's more Halloween happenings!

I did go to another Haunted Attraction last weekend!

Meadowbrook Haunted Cornfield Adventure - I hadn't been to this one in a few years so I was a bit curious on what has changed. I know the price did rise dramatically in the last few years so a lot of my fellow haunt enthusiasts stopped going. Upon traveling through the maze I did notice that a lot of the effects have changed for the better. It used to be mainly actors and paper mache dummies that lined the stalks. But this year they've added some real cool mannequins and some very nice animation effects. There isn't an area of corn maze that isn't themed or adorned with some sort of frightening sight! There are three or for shacks you have to go through in between your venturing through the stalks. One is clown themed that has a goofy maze to traverse. then there's the hillbilly hut where gruesome things lurk. There's also a shack that didn't really work out too well. They herd you into this room and lock you in and keep you there with nothing going on inside it. After about 3 to 4 minutes they open the door to let you out. What's the point of that? The Pirates of the Caribbean finale will have you blown away, sea monster and all! I do have to admit, they've pretty much improved from the last time I've attended. We'll have to see if they keep on improving from year to year. Hopefully they will not keep raising their admission fee and ostracize potential patrons. They've got a great thing going here and it would be a shame for them to out price themselves.


Before I head out, I'd like to post another edition of.....

Zangz's Website of the Moment:
MILWAUKEE AREA PARANORMAL INVESTIGATIONS

Since we were on the subject of a local haunt earlier in the blog, I thought I'd
post a link that has a few more places in my hometown that are spooked up.
A few of them are a 5 minute walk from my Vault of Geekdom headquarters.
So Take a peek and leave a light on tonight!

Well tomorrow is the big day and the Season of the Dead will sadly come to an end during the witching hour. I've got some errands to run and do today. So I'm calling it here, kido's

Zangz.