2020 is Hindsight

 It hasn't been that bad of a year for me or mine. The Viddo shut downs did not affect my work at the milkshake factory, because transportation for sick people remains even during plague days. Indeed, my job itself became a lot more fun for me because my company started sending us to various small towns throughout the Midwest (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin)-- one thing I love is visiting new places on coachman holidays, so to speak. For Peryton, she got to stay at home and works for a super kewl company, so the only thing to change for her was the lowering of her stress levels.

My gaming trip life has been shifting from in person to more and more video calls for years now. The lack of conventions and get-togethers around them, is what bugged me the most. My closest friends, those within my Pery Pubbers gaming clique, did a get-together anyway in August showing that we still had the spunk in us to do raw tabletopping when we had to. SO I guess this was a "B-" year, the meeting of new people being down but the quality of die-hard friends keeping life good.

I haven't enjoyed watching the world around me go from a lush landscape of diversions with scores of non-franchise restaurants and watering holes, to a desert where Amazon, Wendy's, and Wallmart were cemented into the fabric of the universe as its pillared foundations. This sort of crass over-reliance on exploitative outlets keeping semi-employed customers comfortable instead of a thousand micro-economies has lead to some ugly creeping up from the late 90s and Aughts, the age of conspicuous consumption. Variety is not necessary in the long run to most corporations. Human niceties can be hand-waved away because of mindsets that are concerned about their own well-being.

Some where beyond the obnoxious Outrage Brigade supposedly filled by SJWs and the ginger-haired frog-boys of the Alt-Right, I have been able to find my own happy middle. I look forward to seeing what franchises like Star Trek and Doctor Who are going to be up to now their producers have worked through their woke agenda. I also continue to watch as White and Male Rights advocates, err critics of these shows realize that for all their rales no one is listening to them. Away from the big money products, I am sure that producers of the smaller media, namely RPG products, will start noticing the market for slanted views is still a small market despite both sides' provocations over the last ten years.

What does 21, the start of the 2nd Decade, hold for me? Well, it truly is a new start for me as I am quitting a profession lasting in one form or another some thirty-six years, twenty of those of it at the same outfit. On top of that a major regional change is occurring. What I am hoping for is a lot more time, and the discipline to capitalize upon that time, to work on my own creative outlets more seriously. Failing that there is always prostitution and eventual drug overdose. So we'll see how it goes.

What Kind of Fantasy Freak Am I Anymore?

From 1999 until now, my tastes have been evolving as a fantasist. So much of what I thought was awesome when I was unable to spend much time delving into it has turned out to be so average if not bad. So much of the good stuff re-reads as rote compared to the works that came before it. And so many people just don't care unless it comes from Japan and has pedophile overtones done in cartoon. 

A more snobby Lovecraft fan than ever. By "Lovecraft" I mean "Cthulhu-ic" not so much the author. I enjoy most of radical, even edgy stuff that I read dealing in the mythos, Caitlin R. Kierman, comes to mind. While I am bored by all "I'ze got guns and important am" that so many wingnuts drool over these days Achtung Cthulhu anybody? Sure the sub-genre of horror known as dark fantasy needs to be kept topical, but does it always have to be from a History Channel scholar that happens to be wrapped around the axle about the 14th Amendment-- that stuff gets old.

The older I get, the more I don't mind being a Treckie of sorts. A Treckie that dislikes most of the episodes of Star Trek that he has seen but has seen them all up to the current franchise. I admittedly still am working my way through the latest, it's rough. The first movies do it for me, and the universe as written in the RPGs and their supplements, as well as chronicles of the STOLRPG (is that a thing wordly wise?) are just so interesting. Maybe that's because the franchise, except for the Star Trek: Discovery, looks back at itself and the creators therein like to talk about that universe that came before.
Even the animated series Lower Deck is interesting, if a bit too Mary Sue in its simplified structure meant for 40 y/o's but pretending to be for High Schoolers-- Hey it was easier to watch than my STtAS on Saturday morning TV in the 70s in Walnut Creek, TX and then Dresden, DE.

My nuts-and-bolts science fiction formulations are up there with the best. While I am not writing overfunded novels about the future, using free material and data that is out there for everyone, I know more about space and humanity in space theories than any TV writer for the Expanse series. Authors/presenters like Isaac Arthur start to get things right in my estimation, if they'd only get over all the mega structures and colonization of Venus (of all places). Rich coming from a guy that has written about twelve spacemen versus martian variations of the years. 

The loss is high fantasy. Ever since Peter "Big Eyes, Bigger Gut" Jackson's take on The Two Towers, it's all been depressing. A dude at work played the video game, released a month before the movie, and basically showed me almost every scene that I would watch later in the movie theater that weekend. While eating popcorn the next day, I discovered the parts of the movie I disliked were when Tolkien text was actually used. Then there was the whole Game of Thrones phenomena. I have always found George RR Martin to be a bit gimmicky. The HBO series where everyone who was anyone had to make an appearance, without a wig to make things look slightly not like their IMDB picture, in a gimmicky and rambling plot, err plots written by machines or immigrant workers using Word 99 to paste in screen footage from better fantasy movies. The movie take on The Hobbit just went on to prove the point. Then plots for various other video games making their way to Netflix, looking at you Witcher, have been no improvement either. 

SO I am just going to say it here, here's to all the whackadoodle CGI-technique inspired scripted movies (Like Valerian and The Dark Knight Rises) that have failed at least they were visually interesting in scenes that were not reproduced from others within the same movie during the run time. A couple movies have tried to be deeper in their fantasy subgenres, they boil to fist fights near the end and dating advice. Those flops though have tried harder than the "superhero movies" by far. 

 You see Marvel, the brand and the management style, has ruined the superhero subgenre. The task of taking visuals from comics and working in cheesy romance sequences to try and get "girls to read comic books" since the 50s, has given big budget studios a basis for making action movies for almost two decades. Sure it works for at least 20% profit growth for a year but does it really work. And after the big pay-offs keeping this or that studio financially solvent in China, how many do you, seated reader, really want to watch again?
Since the inception of "next level" CGI, none are going to be boring to look at even if it isn't top notch. So I want to see some comic book movies that are about style not an overriding continuity. Just remember how The Infinity War parts one and two flat out pointed out how you were being manipulated as a fan and you suddenly found child-focused movies from Disney interesting again. Almost gone is the inclination to do "single shot" movies for this or that lauded comic book hero. Some are going to be good, most will be mediocre and flawed. But it's not the 90s so very few will be bad. 

I suppose overall, I am still on about Lovecraftian themes, if a brought down to big-headed but grade-B budgeted vehicles. I like my brand name sci-fi campy as well. Well, there is a fine line between art and camp and I crossed it long ago.
 

The "Golden Age of TV" Lasted a Season

 The bad writing in the TV and Hollywood movies that we are seeing these days are due to producer decisions not a culture trying to represent its various ethnic segments in stories that sell to those various ethnic segments of any given population basis. Likewise, the bad writing in the TV and Hollywood movies that we are seeing these days are directly addressing social injustices are decisions made by producers wanting to make profits but not investing in creating culture. If you, drinking and smart analyzer of popular media, cringe when you see a child, a woman, or a man of color come up in the Brand Name TV show that you enjoyed as a child of not being born when it was released, it's not your fault.  And as well, if you as a social advocate view narrative fiction TV consumption as education, you are missing out on really informative stuff provided from else where. But truth be told, you're probably just perpetrating a fraud.

As for the white, racial purist on topics like the Marvel Comic take on Thor while not knowing exactly what to do with Captain America. Can you not find anything interesting to read?  There are about 1,700 authors of fantastic fiction that gets more than million sales upon any release. BUT you are fans of trademarks from the late 50s throughout the 80s. The world is meant to be yours, because you like did a web search back in 1997 or were born on the same day as well and have a white-minded penis. You read three comics on reprint and are now the shield maidens of Catholicism or something or another. And we both know, I am spinning.

Sales are marginal.

What WE not you and me? Notice how there is no separation between our demographics any more? So when you harp on about how media has disenfranchised your take on Captain Marvel because of your inherent manhood and genetic Catholicism you get Bree Marie as Kree-Purse One. That because, what is being viewed on your stream is provided by what I will call a box-lunch provider. You get the best and the "We" forget the rest. The rest might be really good, and you were out voted. You get what you get. The numbers decided that you wanted bullshit, and it worked at least in acceptable outcomes figured out.

I would go on about creative artists versus brand names, but it's hopeless right now. The creatives I am finding are all about stealing and/or selling out.

Should've Been Written By Manatees.

I just watched a movie totally cobbled together by an algorithm though three people are credited with typing it out after they read what a machine told them to. The process must’ve been:
“So like what do 30-50 y/o male comic book buyers like? According to sales of 40K per release Batman and Justice League. Then the whole supernatural caboodle with freshens things up for the younger crowd and hippies about 30K an issue in sales. Hey Nightwing, err Teen Titans pulls in the soccer moms and gays, they sometimes spend up to 20$ a pop. I hear the Frank Miller militia likes apocalypse, that’s another $2.11 for all ten million of their internet sock puppets. Stuff by Jack Kirby goes over big with the drunks, they spend 13k a year before their credit cards are declined. “Dark” sells and Matt Ryan is TV rates. Well there’s Justice League Dark and Darkseid. Two “darks” yeah. Let’s do this.
Don’t forget Harlequin because... Millennials.”

That’s what you get with Justice League DARK Vs DARKseid. Also called Justice League Dark: Apocalypse War which isn't any better.
So like Superman wants to defensively launch a preemptive strike on Apocalypse because Darkseid is bad and is coming for Earth one day. Just like the Netherlands did when they knew Nazi Germany was going invade as much of Europe as it could in late 30s, wait a second... . So despite coherent arguments to not do so, everybody sides with Superman. John Constantine known for his Justice League-ness these days, because supernatural comic books don’t sell over 20k an issue with their own names, is on the bus to Apocalypse. And the rest of the movie is a post-apocalyptic drama, see what the writers did there, where everybody gets what they want.

Superman being a self-entitled douche. Constantine being a douche canoe. 14 y/o’s saying “fuck” and dealing with parents. Kirby’s Fourth World gets mentioned as part of Darkseid’s milieu. The Suicide Squad does suicide with Louis Lane. Oh yeah Oa gets destroyed because why not?

A strength to the movie, if there is one, is the depth of characterization in the personas that weren't Superman, Darkseid, and the Swamp Thing. But that is not a hard thing when the task is write the closing act to a tale of doom and desolation. The movie should have been more interesting in the starting acts and then piece would've not been worthy of doing laundry while watching it. That would've taken humans thinking about how the characters should be presented at the start of it instead of doing coloring book plot exposition.

A definite Robomonster of a flick. I wish it had been written by manatees. Where was Jimmy Olsen and his Newspaper Boys?

NoGenCon Hoot 2020: When Cometh the Moth?

So with GenCon being cancelled this year, our gaming clique, the serious ones at least, got serious about doing the Mothman trip that we've been planning since like 'o7. Peryton and I started out a day earlier than everybody planning on attending. So on Wednesday afternoon we pulled off I-77 in New Philadelphia, Ohio for lunch.
"Hey look the Towpath Tavern." Robin noticed. "But we don't have time for that."
"We are headed to a Quality Inn along the Ohio River coal-burning Valley," I replied. "A day earlier than anybody."
"I wonder if they have decent onion rings, let's find out." She answered.
When we got moving again we decided to listen John Keel's The Mothman Prophesies to get into the right mood.

We made it around 5pm and did a driving reconnoiter of the Point Pleasant, WV/Gallipolis, OH before just settling on finding the named motel. Waiting for Caed and Ravish(Rodney, Caed's husband) to show up in the evening left us with some time to kill. It would soon be raining, so we had the excuse to sit around the room and read game books and nap all day. I still did a little walking and found where I think the original collapsed bridge was.

Getting text messages on my phone, I realized that it was already 6pm and that Robin and Rodney (Caed and Ravish) were there. We met in the lounge of the hotel, I stand corrected from my earlier assessment of Quality Inn, in our usual trickle in fashion. The men first, then the women; my wife of course being the last.
The Old Home Week Evening was awesome, as it usually is. If we all hadn't been practicing in front of mirrors for an entire month, there was some serious note taking and stage details worked out before hand. The storytelling with only four of us there was worthy of a Tony Award at least. Well, at least mine was. I mean who else would I be listening to hear my own beautiful and rich voice?

Rod the Ravisher being apprehended by Museum Security

The next day, everyone was a little hungover but I was able to wrestle everyone from their nap spots and out the door to do the shopping part of the trip done while we waited for new Tom and Saharrah (Tom Too and Sahar) to show up. We texted them and told them to meet us in town. When they arrived, after Pery had spent 200$, and treated my fake niece and her betrothed to admission to the world famous Mothman Museum.

After the pleasant afternoon in the hot sun and fresh air in a quaint smaller city's downtown area, it was time for big dinner with the whole gang assembled. Then it was time, after a quick nap, it was time for the important stuff. It rhymes with GAMING.

Everyone wanted to some serious D&Ding so I acquiesced and even played. Still Pery would not let me play an one-eyed half-ork general because her long session was set in Middle Earth. Hey I saw the movies, there were orks in them. She's was just being Character Class Racist. I need to get a Twitter account to rake up some fake controversy.  I mean somebody got to play an elf girl with no hit points to speak of.
The game ran from 9pm Friday and into the late afternoon of the next day. There was some sleep time and a big breakfast so we all could bug our latest favorite waitress, Lezza (just call her awesome). I believe this is what "true gamers" hope for. So unlike my three to four hour quippy sessions that I run at GenCon and online for the rest of the year. I had fun, but I couldn't help but feel like I was clocking in when restarted.

After that game, our gang deigned to allow me to run some Crawlspace. Came up with a session called The Funeral using a couple of seeds from some scenarios knocking around in my head already. Around midnight, we cleaned up our mess and everyone could get some real sleep. The last session at the Hoot is always a test of endurance.

The next day, everyone slept in. Caed and Ravish slipped out so Tom Too had to pay the bill on their shared room. I bought us all some brunch, so Pery and I dragged "the kids" out to the TNT Bunkers so central to the folklore of the Mothman cycles of Kultura Americana.

The bunkers are a nice low-level nature walk. Almost a mile and pretty well maintained, probably by the Department of Parks and Recreation. The bunkers are still temples of adolescent partydom, which sticks to fairly interesting graffiti. Our particular hike was just great. A storm system had rained just enough the night before to cool down the 90s into the high 70s. The scorching sun was mostly behind clouds (LOOK HOW MUCH SUNBURN I AM NOT!), and it's a real bog. The water was only mildly lawn fertilizer polluted, so while slime covered, it still looked like water not pea soup when big frogs would jump in. 

So we took our time getting home after hugging Sahar and Tom goodbye. We drove up to Pomeroy and up to Zanesville before finding the Mighty Road, I-77, to make our way home. We got to enjoy the lovely country air filled with smog from fracking facilities. Have to admit I was a little glad to get back to Cleveland where I get some fresh air.

Peryton Moth-Wenching it up Saturday night.

The Comic Book Movie of the Decade

In case you haven’t noticed over the past decades since 1997 when I first came on-line, I am a Batman fan. Any of the comic book scholars that I debate with nearly weekly, know that I believe that comic books are supposed to express something other than pornography and nihilism without being self-righteous and an organ of any would-be State Propaganda Department. Okay the pornography is Frank Miller and the Propaganda is everyone cowering to anyone not liking movies made for audiences not over 14 years old. I do not mind when the movie in front of me is not written by Proust. I also am not sitting around watching a movie because I need distraction between diaper-changes for my 32 y/o children. I also don’t mind when a movie wants me to like it.

Okay, the movie Birds of Prey is not total Feminism 210. It’s more a comic book take on girl power set in GOTHAM CITY . It has no world-ending plot device and it is GANGSTA BATMAN. It’s also not afraid to get corny, because none of the Bat-Man franchise ever would go corn ever. Up front, this movie has a lot of pretension without the precociousness that we are used to after being lectured by Disney Corp. It staples down on the semi-successful scripting of the Suicide Squad and falls back the story. This is not a CGI and canned music puppet show of needing something to say. Everyone viewing this is just simply watching a movie, not an advocate towards the testament of a mythological cycle.

It comes down to wanting Iain Glen to play Batman for the next seven years. While ignoring how much the DC Universe series Titans sucks, it doesn’t always require the end of the world for someone to put on silly costumes. It does require some hard circumstances to need a silly costume and not just be absurd. So when the costumed heroes come out, it’s worth it.

The stages for the last part of movie combined the Tim Burton stages with the Chris Nolan feel for things This made the movie much better than the downward spiral of all the Avenger DC story rip-offs. It did not need to be written by 30 background-checked temp employees trying to equal Shakespeare or Marlon Brando. It need to be fun movie to watch without worrying about doomsday, it needed to be about people wearing costumes.

As to any criticism as to how “woke” the film is, remember seated friends that you’re watching a movie for 9-16 year old females.