What I Did On A Saturday

Tai Chi: Fighting Slow Invisible Ninjas

So I had a full Saturday, this Saturday last. Tai Chi demonstrations, glasswork of the elder gods, Seattle traffic raised to its ultimate level, drinking at a gamer's bar, and a children's Cthulhu book.

First things first. I practice Tai Chi under Master Yijiao Hong at the Chinese Wushu And Tai Chi Accademy. About once a year or so, we're asked to make a public demonstration, usually at the Armory of the Seattle Center, and usually for a cultural festival (The one was "A Glimpse of China: Chinese Culture and Arts Festival"). This year, we performed four demonstrations - two Tai Chi forms, and two Tai Chi Sword forms (I performed in the two Tai Chi forms, while the Lovely Bride did those and one of the sword forms as well). It was enjoyable, and the other presentations over the afternoon included other martial artists, dance troupes, musicians and about thirty small children dressed up as ducklings (who were very, very cute).

This, year, in addition, we were asked to perform at the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum next to the armory. The garden/museum is a new thing, and just celebrating its first anniversary. The entire complex is built on the site of the former Fun Forest, a small, weathered amusement complex that needed renovation, but not elimination. The museum turned this Fun Forest into an enclosed glass garden with a price tag enough to keep one at bay, unless one was a Chihuly fan, which I was not.

Yes, I know. I look like a snowball.

Dale Chihuly is a Seattle Artist made legendary by his colorful and flowing glasswork. Most of his work I have seen has been in terms of single pieces, which are often colorful, half-melted bowls. I wondered what the big deal was, and how this would rate removing a tilt-a-whirl. However, the museum itself is a marvel of installation and presentation. Large darkened rooms with focused lighting turn the colors of the glasswork magic, their rich colors glowing under the illumination. The adjacent garden is a combination of plants with the layered spheres and organic glass seedpods and glowing spikes of the artist's works. A single Chihuly is a interesting item - a forest of his glass forms is overwhelming.

The garden is built around a glass structure used for private functions (every museum needs at least one of these in these multi-tasked, fundraising days), and it was within this oversized greenhouse, dominated by crystaline flowers overhead, that we did the second performance of the day. And we actually did pretty well at that (my personal fear is always that I will stand on one leg and, topheavy, go sprawling over backwards - much of my style can be described as "staying upright"). It was well-received (we drew a crowd) and it was in one of the places where you could swing a sword without worrying about taking out any valuable, valuable, artwork.

Who ordered the Flying Polyp?

In doing the second demo, we were given the chance to walk the grounds and check out the art. As I said, a small piece of Chihuly is an interesting bit, but combined into large, flowing forms twenty feet high, the end result looks like something that has escaped from an elemental dimension into ours. His works among the garden are like the flesh organic plants described by Clark Aston Smith in his short stories, and his fiery oranges and reds seem to contain eldritch radiation leaking into our world. Chihuly, in this moment for me, becomes C'thulhi, glassblower of ancient, now-sunken lands, his work a testament to forgotten gods.

Two performances in one day were a bit much for me, particularly since I overdid myself and tried to get lower for moves like "Snake Creeps Down". It left me limping back to the car, and I began a long sojourn north to celebrate another version of Cthulhu - this time in a children's book.

But let me whine a bit about traffic. To native Seattlites, the "Mercer Mess", which stretches from the I-5 to the Seattle Center, is a legendary chunk of road, famous for its congestion, renowned for its utter badness. And any attempt to fix the damned thing is going to involve some additional heartache. But to close it where Mercer meets the north-south I-99 is the equivalent of delivering a Vulcan Nerve Pitch to the city. In my case, rather than face the traffic, I tried secondary routes up Queen Anne, found the secondary routes equally clotted, and spent about 45 minutes limping back to the highway, as if my vehicle had down two sets of demos and crouched too much for "Snake Creeps Down".

North was my goal, for the AFK Tavern. The AFK is a gamer bar, board games at the ready, food items names after pop cult fantasy and science fiction, video screens showing Starcraft games in process. It is up in Everett, because apparently King County adds Bar+Games and gets Casino, and after getting lost around the Alderwood Mall, got there.

Sort of like La Belle Epoque, but with more d20s.

The reason for celebration as "The Littlest Shoggoth", the creation of Stan! Brown. Stan! is a nifty cartoonist and a societal hub of many universes, and ran a kickstarter to get his book in colored, hard-covered form. The result is one of those perfect Christmas gifts for the cultist that has everything. Stan! took a break from continually mailing out the tome to his Kickstarter supporters to come celebrate, and it was a gathering of nerdom. Touched base with a lot of the people that I haven't seen in a while. discovered new jobs, engagements, secret projects, and the general chatter that keeps nerds in communication. I also met someone I had been playing games with online for near on a year, but had never met In Real Life.

We feasted on Shoggoth's Eyes (scotch eggs) and drank local beers (a very pale beer called White 'N Nerdy"). It was a long, long drive back, and today I am paying for my city-trotting socializing with aching knees. But still, one of those Saturdays that makes me appreciate living out here in the Pacific NW, even if it means I have to deal with the Mercer Mess.

More later,

(Tai Chi pictures by Yijiao Hong, AFK picture by Rodney Thompson, Flying polyp picture by Unamit Ahazredit. Remember to make you SAN checks).

Pittsburgh: The Movie

OK, if  you're a Pittsburgh native (and even if you aren't), you really should watch this - a collection of movies filmed in Pittsburgh, with a lot of attention to Batman and Inspector Gadget. I think Dogma is missing, along with The Bread My Sweet (which features my Mom-In-Law as a meter maid). Just enjoy.



More later,

The (Totally Expected) Return of No Quarter (Part IV)

Ah, spring is in the air, the rhododendrons are blooming, and  it becomes once more, time to review this year's crop of National Park Quarters. Long ago and far away, I started examining the State Quarter series, and once that was laid to rest, a NEW series, called the "America the Beautiful" series, launched. The rules were similar - each state (and a handful of colonial properties) gets a coin to push one of their scenic national parks, forests, memorials,  or what-not. For some states this is a bigger challenge than others, but all have showed up with something.

As is usual, we rate this year's crop of National Park coins on design - Here's the rating system.
Cool = A
Not Bad = B
Kinda Lame = C
Very Lame = D
The Wyoming State Quarter = E
Bonus points given for scenes that make sense, are easily recognizable, and have a good feel to the touch.This year's crop is OK, but not really spectacular. Let's dig in.

White Mountain National Forest  - New Hampshire

Yeah, it's a mountain. And it IS white (well the drawing is - I suppose the coin would be silver. So we at least have truth in advertisting going on.

And the carving is not particularly BAD - in fact, the bracketing birch trees could give the coin a good feel against the thumb, a ridge for the center white space of the view of the mountain. But the subject matter? I mean there feels like there are a bunch of states that do the forested-view-with-large-landform thing both in the previous series and in this one. All that is missing is some form of native wildlife in the foreground to give it a feel of animation.

And New Hampshire is probably hedging its bets. Its state quarter had the Old Man On the Mountain, which then COLLAPSED. I think they're just taunting the mountain here to fold in on itself.

Rating: B (Not Bad).

Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial - Ohio


Did anyone think of Lord Nelson when they saw this one? I know I did. Guy in naval uniform. Tall Doric column. I mean, if this was a contest of Pictionary, the answer would be - Nelson's Column.

But no, this is Admiral (well, Master Commandant) Perry, who is OUR admiral for the age of sail, whose middle name literally WAS Hazard, and who gave us a victory on Lake Erie during the War of 1812, facing off against the mightiest navy in the world, primarily because a) the mightiest navy in the world was busy fighting Napoleon  and b) the mightiest navy in the world couldn't GET to Lake Erie because NIAGARA FALLS was in the way.

But hey, a win's a win.

And though we are in the bicentennial period for that war (and the bicentennial of the Battle of Lake Erie is September 10th, so get you Battle of Lake Erie card orders in NOW). We aren't talking a lot of about the war. which sort of indicates who we really thought won it. Canada on the other hand is excited about it, and they weren't even a nation yet. I'm kind of interested to see next year if anyone even mentions the burning of the White House (except FOX, of course, which will blame Obama for not keeping us safe).

And the coin is celebrating mixed messages - Perry's Victory AND the Peace Memorial. Military Victory AND the fact we've had a long, relatively peaceful border ever since. And it is ironic to note that this is set in Ohio, which doesn't HAVE a land border at the present with Canada.

So it is a coin dripping with irony, right down the fact that the visitor center for this island-based park (reachable by ferry or airplane, when Jet Blue is flying) is delayed to open because of the sequester. But quarters they can afford.

Rating: C  (Kinda Lame).

Great Basin National Park - Nevada

OK, Nevada doesn't have a lot to work with here. I would have thought that Hoover Dam would be in contention, since it IS a National Historic Landmark, but then maybe they would have had to share it with Arizona if they did. So they have the Great Basin, which is notable for being miles and miles of miles and miles.

And yet, they've done very nicely. The choice of the bristlecone pine looks a bit like it is going with Treebeard to take on Saruman at Isengard, but the use of different textures is going to be nice for the feel of the coin, and pushing it one side makes the static object more dynamic. 

So yeah, in a modest year, this is one of the better ones.

Rating: A (Way Cool).

Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine - Maryland

Another entry in the War of 1812 theme of this year, this one commemorating the crystal entity from Star Trek attacking the Fort, before being scared off by the Omega Glory (double geek points for getting that one). 

OK, it really the shelling of Fort McHenry by the British, though its not. From the notes it REALLY is showing traditional fireworks going off during the "Defender's Day" celebration of the fort. So you get the flashiness, when really the fort and the British Ships were shelling each other at long range.

So this is another win from the Wo12 - the British, fresh from burning Washington (Thanks, Obama!) moved onto Baltimore, sailing up the Chesapeake. They were foiled by land batteries, a line of sunken ships, and the fort. Neither side got close enough to do significant damage to each other, but the British were foiled, and in the process we got a poem that was later welded to an earlier drinking song to become the Star Spangled Banner. 

The coin itself, despite the fireworks, feels a little flat at first blush. The explosions work from an eyes-half-closed sort of look, and while the flag is good (indeed, when was the last time you saw a flag on the coin - some old bicentennial quarters?) the buildings are just sort of squatting there. 

Rating: C (Kinda Lame)

Mount Rushmore National Memorial - South Dakota

So here's a challenge - what do you do when the state quarter bogarts the killer view of your most memorable feature? Arizona pulled things off nicely by shifting the view of the Grand Canyon entirely delivering a superior coin. South Dakota, on the other hand, gave us this.

Jefferson's nose. 

They gave us a close-up of Jefferson's Nose. Actually, it is an in-process shot of carving Jefferson's face (working on those baggy eyelids) while the scaffolding behind supports the almost unrecognizable face of Washington. The carving of the monument is a cool thing, but the series is America the Beautiful, not Nostrils of the Founding Father.

This one is honestly WORSE than the State Quarter, with its giant pheasant flying over the classic view of the memorial, and that takes some doing. It takes a recognizable icon and hides it entirely. That takes work.

Rating: D (Very Lame)

That wraps this year's batch, and next year has a whole heaping helping of natural features. I predict we will see trees, mountains, and the occasional local wildlife. 

More later,

DOW Breaks 14000! No, wait! I mean 15000!

It has been a while since the last "DOW Breaks" write-up - over a year, so here are the rules. For the purposes of this blog, it simply means ratcheting past a milepost - since the last write-up occurred at 13000, the stock market would have to sink to 12000 or rise to 14000 before it merited another note. It has to end the day at the milestone or above. And it is a good chance to take a look at the economy in general..

The DOW actually crossed 14000 back in February, but I didn't mention it then because, you know, Hawaii. And despite the common thoughts about how the current administration hates Big Business, and liberals in Washington are so gung ho to dismantle Wall Street, the market continues to surge upwards. Indeed, it seems that this is the best part of the economy right now. If there are truly socialists in charge, they are doing a horrible, horrible job at it.

And the rest of the economy is decidedly "Meh". Not for the bigs - they seem to be doing pretty good. But for most of us shmoes, the job providers don't seem to be providing much, despite their supposed good fortune. Employment continues its slow, incremental recovery. Seattle, with its regressive taxes and progressive stance, seems to be doing pretty well, but for a large swath in the country, most notably in the redder sections, life is still kinda sketchy.

And I have to look at why, and I think I have a reason that hasn't shown up what passes for wisdom among the pundit class. It is because government and its attendant deficits are not growing. In fact, they are shrinking. Government is smaller now than when we started this current recession, and the deficits are currently reducing (the overall debt is another matter - there is a difference).

This is important because government spending has in the past led the way out of recessions. Yeah, yeah, you supposedly can't spend your way out of a recession, but that's exactly what we've done previously. Government steps in and starts placing some orders, be it roads, tanks, or new weapons systems, and the private sector takes the hint and things get moving again.

This time, not so much. While I don't think the current administration are austerity hawks (and while I am amused by the reports that the research that austerity being a good thing is wrong because of a cut-and-paste error, it sounds really too perfect to be true), they are serious about making government smaller and more efficient. Which means it costs less. Which means that there is less money thrown around to get things going again. And no one wants that when their particular fiscal ox is offered for the BBQ.

This is a common problem with the current system - everyone hates government spending, but the moment that the big factory that makes warning stickers for OSHA reports is closing, or the local military base is being shuttered because we haven't had a war with Canada for 200 years, then everyone is indignant that the government is not paying attention to the needs of its people. The idea that the government is completely independent from the economy is a polite fiction, at best.

And yet in the midst of this no one seems to own up that government is getting smaller, and that as a result we aren't spending money to get the economy rolling again. I can see why the Republicans are all-fired quiet about it - here's a president who is doing what they have been claiming needs to be done (yet never seem to get around to doing). If it doesn't work, then that sort of undercuts their entire rational. On the Dem side, you'd think they would be glad to shed a tax and spend image tossed them by their Distinguished Competition, yet they don't want to be shown holding the bag for the attendant economic misery.

The thing is, a smaller government is a good thing - long term. It shows we can get out of these messes without ratcheting up the system one more notch. It backs us away from the cliff. But it is a slower, more painful process, and will still have economic suffering going forward, as everyone tightens their belts.

Except for the guys at the DOW, of course. For them, things are just ducky.

More later,

Wrap-up For the Rep.

Pullman Porter Blues by Cheryl L. West, Directed by Lisa Peterson.
Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, Directed by Braden Abraham.
Inspecting Carol by Daniel Sullivan and the Seattle Repertory Theatre Resident company, Directed by Jerry Manning.
American Buffalo by David Mamet, Directed by Wilson Milam.
Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler, Directed by Braden Abraham.
War Horse based on the book "War Horse" by Michael Morpugo, adapted for the stage by Nick Stafford in association with Handspring Puppet Company, Originally directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, US Tour Director Bijan Shebani.
Good People by David Lindsay-Abaire, Directed by David Saint.
Boeing, Boeing by Marc Camoletti, translated by Beverly Cross and Francis Cross, Directed by Allison Narver.
All of the above, Seattle Repertory Theatre.

Normally play reviews, particularly those for the Seattle Repertory Theatre, where the Lovely Bride and I have season tickets, carry this blog through the cold dark months of the winter. This year, I got behind with a bunch of reviews from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and just let things slide from there. So now I'm at the end of the season, and really need to sum up, for my own internal housekeeping if nothing else (plus the fact that I will probably have to come back to this some time in the future and figure out what the heck I was thinking).

This, the Seattle Rep's 50th Season, was OK. Not great or stellar, but OK. More wins than losses. The things that bothered me about it rarely had anything to do with the work, or the actors (both of which tend to be superior), and more with the larger issues of putting plays onto the stage.

The first out the door was Pullman Porter Blues, which falls into the category of being the annual "play with music" - not a musical, but a play built around extant songs - a revue with more narrative thread. There is one every year.  The year is 1937, the night of the Joe Louis/ Braddock fight, the place is the Panama Express, a train running from Chicago to New Orleans. Three generations of Pullman Porters are on the train, for various reasons, and the three men espouse different methods operating with a white-dominated world. The race relations are front and center here, but so are the generational problems, and indeed every member of the family is keeping secrets from the others. It trundles along nicely, though the ending is a little neat. The best parts were strong performances from Larry Marshall and Cleavant Derricks (Yeah, he was in Sliders - deal with it). In general, it felt like a show running through its paces en route to New York. Who knows, it could be another Light in the Piazza, where it does well and everyone remembers when it was here in Seattle.

Glass Menagerie could have been very good, but for this one I bailed. Having done enough straw hat theater and having a Mom-in-Law who directed same, I have had more Tennessee Williams than the normal human lifetime allowance. However, it is "Classic Play You've Heard Of Which Is Not Shakespeare" entry into the year.

Inspecting Carol should get a pass from me. It is another good go-to-play for small theaters (again, I have run lines with the Mom-In-Law when she was in a local performance), but it was created here at the Rep, so it makes sense for it to show up for its 50th. Local play makes good. But this performance left me a bit flat. I think backstage comedies work best when you are already comfortable with the actors as actors and not as roles. The cast for Inspecting had a lot of strangers to it, so that linkage was lost to me. The name Repertory carries with it the idea of a permanent company. This is weakened by plays that are another company just using the stage (Pullman, for all its goodness) and actors "who are pleased to be appearing at the Rep for the first time". That latter is not a crime, and often we'd like to see more of them in the future at the Rep.

[Oh, and when you're going through the program booklet at Intermission, count the number of actors with credits in Law & Order and CSI. Those are the modern actor equivalents of the FDR's WPA.]

American Buffalo was my least-favorite play. Deeply loved the language and rhythm of Mamet's Glengarry Glen Rose, but this play, about a junk-shop operator and his friends planning the heist of an expensive nickle,was just missing it for me. Possibly it is the limited number of characters - Mamet's abusive, self-righteous characters go better when they are bouncing off multiple targets when then they are bound in a tight, whining loop. The production subverts the dark message of the play as well, culminating an action-heavy sequence of shop destruction with a cascade of pillows, pulling the rug out of the entire scene. It really didn't work for me.

Photography 51, on the other hand, was the best play of the season, combining a good script with effective direction and excellent acting. It is the story of Rosalind Franklin and her role in the discovery of DNA. Kirsten Potter, who previously showed up in Or (and, being honest, is one of the voices in Guild Wars 2), was excellent in the role of Franklin, equally sympathetic and off-putting. Crick and Watson were laid out in broader, more cartoony strokes, but it was an excellent presentation. More of this, please (do I need to add that almost the entire cast had previous experience on the Rep's boards?)

Forgive me while I continue flogging a deceased equine in War Horse. The idea of a Rep is to have a common pool of performers. And I can go with (and enjoy) seeing different actors, as at least there is a continuity of direction, management and even things like lighting and stagecraft. A sensibility should permeate a theater company's production, and to some degree does with the REP, even when guests from out of town come to visit.  However, War Horse is a completely different production operation, a touring company for a nationally-known show, and performed in a completely different building than usual (the spotty old Paramount, a theater that makes you appreciate the sight lines of the Bagley-Wright). There is no continuity here, and it feels like a field trip than part of the regular theater experience. I would have preferred another performance in the Leo K to this.

Yeah, but what about the play? Well, its a Broadway performance - heavy on spectacle, light on character, direct and simple on plot. Plot is boy meets horse, boy loses horse, WWI arrives (which, we establish clearly, was a bad idea for everyone involved), and finally (spoiler) boy finds horse. The spectacle is great, and the puppeteers handing the horses are brilliant and subtle and the tech spectacular. But it really isn't a Rep production.

Good People gets back into the line with a play about American class distinctions, and makes a good pairing with Pullman Porter Blues in the idea of separate worlds. Margie from South Boston (Ellen McLaughlin) re-encounters an old boyfriend who has "made good" and left the neighborhood. The characters are sharp, the acting good, and the accents (I am so told by a Bostonian who was sitting next to me) were good enough for army work. But what I liked about the play is that it is missing something that bothers me with other plays, like God of Carnage or much of Edward Albee. In this other plays, one party or another talks about leaving, no one ever really leaves, because you need to have them all present. This particular play minimized that feature, and where it raised its ugly head, you got the feeling there was a natural reason to set down the coat and return to the discussion. A good play.

And finally, Boeing, Boeing, which is, according to Wikipedia, the French equivalent of The Mousetrap, being performed relentlessly there. It is a farce set in 1962 (later a movie with Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis) where a man in Paris (a slick Richard Nguyen Sloniker) is juggling three stewardess girlfriends on a tight timetable. Then there are some snags and all three women show up at once. Whackiness ensues.

And it is whackiness finds its epicenter with Mark Bedard, who is the best friend from Wisconsin who stumbles into this shambles. I didn't find his Groucho is OSF's Animal Crackers particularly engaged or engaging, but his sheer joy of slapstick works wonders within the smaller and more intimate house of the Bagley-Wright. He pulls off fully that comedian's craft of making you believe that what he is doing and saying is the first time he has ever done or said anything like that. Combine that with the three stunning stewardesses (Rep Vets Bhama Roget and Cheyenne Casebier, with newcomer Angela DiMarco, who should also come back), a long-suffering maid (Anne Allgood) and a extremely technical set, and you have an animated Playboy cartoon from the early 60s. The humor is as broad as the accents and the result is a little truffle of silliness, a good way of closing out the season on an up note.

So to recapitulate - Broadway Hopeful, Old Master, Local Favorite, Lesser Work by a Name Playwright, Excellent Play About Something You Haven't Heard About, Broadway Field Trip, Good Solid Play, Giggly Farce. And that's a good summing up for the Rep at 50.

More later, but in smaller bits.

In Which I Read Quietly

So the other night I attended a silent reading party. It is a regular thing up on First Hill, in the Fireside Room of the Sorrento Hotel, and runs the first Wednesday of the month. Usually my Wednesdays are booked with other things, but my tai chi classes don't start until next week. The Stranger always pushes it, talking about soft chairs, soft music, and soft lighting.

My purpose, in part, was to jumpstart a book I've been reading - Playing at the World, by Jon Peterson. It is the story of the birth of D&D and all the games that preceded it, and should I ever finish the tome, will provide a review. It is a good book, but like a lot of books, I have set it down at one point and not picked it up again (I have a number of such orphaned books on my bedside bookshelf, and they merit an article on their own). Playing at the World is a doorstop of a book, richly detailed, and I had ground out at the detailed analysis of hit points descending from the Fletcher Pratt naval rules, and wanted to pick up the book again, but other events and opportunities conspired against it. So my goal was to read without distraction.

Anyway, I got there late, because we were having a good design discussion at the office (why such discussions always break out at 5 PM is a bit of mystery). I arrived and found the Sorrento an older hotel with a smallish restaurant converted entirely to people deeply immersed in books. All seats were taken, most nooks were filled, and crannies were at a premium. Moving among the reading herds, I could feel that vibe of readers wanting to maintain their space (The literate are a kindly people, but possessive of their reading space, including the additional space they are saving for late-arriving friends). I ended up just outside the room, parked at a chess table. A kindly waitress brought me an expensive but completely serviceable glass of reisling, and I hunkered down and set to reading.

And it was OK. Lighting was typical for an older hotel, subdued, which is good for meals and problematic for reading, in particular texts with small print. Music was provided by Will Bielawski on the harp,which was excellent, though when he went into "Ashokan Farewell", also known as "That song from Ken Burns' Civil War", I suddenly was reading the text in Garrison Keilor's voice.

I stayed about an hour, pressed through the section on Fletcher Pratt and the difference between mitigation and endurance in dealing damage in miniature games (and its later effect on D&D), so I consider it to be a success. Would I go again in the future, I would:
     a) Arrive earlier
     b) Go with a larger printed text, or, better yet, use a back-lit e-reader.
     c) Look older so some young child will take pity on me and offer me a better seat.

The idea of a silent reading party looks pretty good, and should some local bar in the Renton/Kent area with a dead Tuesday night decide to pick it up, I would encourage it. As it is, I'm glad I checked it out, but don't really need to return.

Unless, of course, someone saves me a seat.

More later,

The Guild Wars 2 Super Adventure Box!

In Guild Wars, we've been known to do ... stuff for April Fools Day. Turn all the characters into stick figures. Release the Commando as a promised character class. Change all the player characters' genders, or turn them all into big-headed Gwen dolls. This year, our team has put together something kinda special, complete with its own, 80's style commercial.

Enjoy. More later. No, really.

Attaining EBay-ness

So I've been cleaning out the Archive Room downstairs. The Archive Room is where I've been stashing game product and comics that I've purchased, written, or otherwise acquired over the years. The end result was a rather ponderous pile of boxes that I could rarely organize, much less sort through, ranging from duplicate author copies to small-press games to early incarnations of classics.

As a result, I've been on a multi-year quest to ease up on some of the load and reduce the clutter. Some of the material went through Fantasium Comics (formerly Spy Comics), my local comic provider. But when fellow gamer Ann Trent started up as Ebay Mistress for the mighty Stan!, I turned to her to unload some of the older and odder stuff.

The result is here at the Stannexmart, where you can find both Stan!'s stuff and my own. She's just starting with my material, and most of what is currently up is old World of Darkness stuff. There will be more to come as she moves through the small mountain of boxes I sent her.

Now, if I can only find a good home for 90 longboxes of unsorted, unbagged comics, I would have the room cleared out.

More later

Maui

So. Vacation.

The Lovely Bride and I celebrated our 30th anniversary by fleeing Seattle for the (pleasantly) warmer and (reasonably) sunnier climes of Hawai'i.  And it was fun.

There's a lot more where this came from.

I'd show you all the photos, but to be honest, they are pretty much shots taken from our resort overlooking the ocean, with Lanai and Molokai in the distance. Here's a shot of the beautiful sea. Here's another one. Here's one with a rainbow. Here's a sunset. Oh, and see that dot? That's a whale.

We have been to Hawai'i before, and on previous occasions have rented a car, which spent the bulk of the time parked at the resort while we overdosed on sushi. So this time, no car rental, no traditional drive around the island and sudden realization that things get dark fast after that beautiful sunset. We flew out of Honolulu on a 9-person Cessna Caravan that had a ceiling of about 5000 feet (I know that because we were level with the top of Molokai), and came in on a landing field on western Maui, about four football fields long. We ensconced ourselves at the Napili Kai, an older resort (meaning it was closer to the waterline) and used taxis, buses, and long walks to get around.

What we did do for the bulk of the week was eat and snorkel. I have become a fan since discovering that you can get prescription snorkel masks (Thank you, Snorkel Bob's), and both Napili Bay and Kapalua Bay to the north were good snorkeling sites. A lot of fish, a goodly number of sea turtles (green and hawksbill - the former I usually found swimming, and they would immediately grass on the larger hawksbills by taking the tourists right to them). A school of tiny cuttlefish, handing head down in the waves, unfurling their tentacles to threaten interlopers. The agenda was breakfast, snorkel, lunch, snorkel, recover, sunset, dinner, sleep. Not a bad little schedule.

The local restaurant, the Sea House, was great for dinner, a little in the weeds for lunch. We also discovered a good joint, Merrimans, which was about 50 yards from where we were staying, which was the equivalent of learning that your hotel room overlooks Canlis. We had a wonderful anniversary dinner there, and then spawn-camped their patio for happy hour. Since we were on the west side of Maui, we had the islands of Lanai and Molokai in the distance, and whales in between. Humpbacks, in this case (We did get down to Lahaina for a whale watching trip, but to be honest we did well on the patio - better beer as well).

In short, it was a complete and total zoning out, which is pretty much what I wanted out of the deal. And it was a good way of celebrating thirty years.

More later,

Adventure: Pulp Tentacles VII

The Timeless Sands of India by Jon Hook, an Age of Cthulhu Adventure from Goodman Games.

I've been doing this for a while now - reviewing Call of Cthulhu adventures that I have GMed. Play always reveals things that a mere read-through does not, and while that means I may not be timely in these reviews, I feel they are a little more grounded. 

Case in point: the latest in the series from Goodman Games for its "pulp Cthulhu" adventure. I felt upon reading that they got a lot more right than wrong in presenting an adventure. The players were not as enchanted, and that makes things interesting.

And as a general note, Spoilers within, so be prepared.

Here's the outline in brief: The investigators are troubled by horrific dreams, which send them to Calcutta. There they discover that they have all be mentally hijacked at some time in their lives by an creature from the far-flung future who is seeking to avoid an Armageddon. Now there is a group of Adversaries who are seeking to foil that plan to stave off doomsday, and the investigators have been summoned for a final battle to defeat these Adversaries.

The presentation is pretty darn good, in that it takes into account that adventurers might be coming from other locations than Arkham and tries to cover a wide variety of likely but what-if scenarios. The maps for once actually match up with the text, and while there are a few places where the map key numbers are off (assigned to the wrong chapter), they work well. The text is clear, though the players did mock the number of things mentioned in the read-aloud text that were either stated to be nondescript or indescribable, but then were described. and then there's the idea that a female character in the 1920s would be referred to as "Ms." But these are generally nits. It is a good package.

And yet the players were frustrated a bit. Part of it was the linearity of the adventure (earlier entries in this series would give an initial setup, then let the players explore a number of venues before going off to fight the big bad). Another challenge was that these particular investigators have a history of going through the rest of the adventures of the series, and similarities with other adventures do crop up. Dreams are a continual trope in this series, such that they hold little peril by this point. They have previously suffered from a "lost time" episode in Indonesia, where they also encountered dimensional shamblers mentioned here. (Which are portrayed in both situations as character-ending encounters but in reality are little match for a mobster with a tommy gun). 

The group is also armed with iPads, which means that fact-checking is part of the process and this adventure and most of the rest of the line stand up to that level of counter-checking. One clue involved a blue elephant which got them into the Hindu deity Genesha (who is usually portrayed as red but has an incarnation which is presented as blue). Minor digressions included whether they would have to change trains from Calcutta to Johdpur to account for India's differing rail gauges (unresolved), and whether Bombay gin existed in the 1920s (yes, but the gimlet I used it for was two years after the stated year of the adventure - my bad). 

But the big thing that I think bothered them was the fact that the ultimately adventure was more pulp than Cthulhu. The feeling of dread and menace was missing, despite the rules reducing in-game effectiveness for the lack of sleep (a rule that was itself of limited effectiveness as many of the rolls demanded in the game were luck, idea, and ability checks). This is a rollicking solid adventure, but Mr. Lovecraft has stepped out for a smoke and his substitute is Robert E. Howard. In fact, the final great battle had more than a whiff of Zulu Dawn to it, but that may because we had some stalwart brits fighting off the hordes (and this would be the greatest challenge for a GM - 18 sand-dwellers, including 3 sorcerers, 40 Cultists, and a Grand Wizard - the adventure gives you some general suggestions on how to handle it, then pats you on the back and says "Above all else, have fun with the battle.")

But the creature that you are eventually helping is one of Lovecraft's more accomodating monsters - rational, and reasonable. The story it originally appears in is noted for its sense of wonder and dread as opposed to its threat and action, and underscores a Lovecraftian theme of man's insignificance within an uncaring universe. The idea of victory on the behalf of a squamous elder creation is a bit out of sorts for the rest of the series. In the after-battle report, the players thought it might have worked better if the benefactor had to fess up at the end that humanity was still doomed, but at least the creature's library was safe!

One last thing, which is interesting for this as part of a continuing campaign. The investigators received over the course of the adventure a small slew of new skills, which are of debatable use within the adventure (they are taught how to manage their nightmares, but the nightmares are soon banished in any event), and gain the ability to use alien artifacts (which may never appear again, and if they do appear, will be in adventures assuming the players don't have those abilities). It is a mixed bag, both under-utilized and over powers in one swell foop.

The end verdict for me is that this is a good one, but with the note that it is more Indiana Jones than Albert Wilmarth, but with a couple more tweaks could have a strong feeling of dread and foreboding that is at the heart of a CoC campaign.

More later,

Theatre: Playing Catchup

Party People by Universes (Mildred Ruiz-Sapp, Steven Sapp, William Ruiz, AKA Ninja), developed by Liesl Tommy. Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare, directed by Rob Melrose, Oregon Shakespeare Festival
The Very Merry Wives of Windsor, Iowa by Alison Carey, adapted from the play by William Shakespeare, Directed by Christopher Liam Moore, Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Henry V by William Shakespeare, Directed by Joseph Haj, Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Animal Crackers by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, Music and Lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, Reconceived from an Adaptation (deep breath) by Henry Wishcamper, Directed by Allison Narver,Oregon Shakespeare Festival

So there have been all of three posts on Grubb Street this December - This one, one wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, and one recommending other peoples's stuff. And there's a couple reasons for this sparcity of posts - part of it is a general post-GW2-ship lethargy, concealed briefly by the huggamugga of political posts that were, of course, time sensitive. But another was that I had a lot of things in the hopper I wanted to talk about, particularly play reviews from my now-temporally distances adventure in Ashland with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF). I accomplished two reviews in detail, but have the other six sort of clogging the pipeline. I COULD abandon them, because, really, who wants to read reviews about closed plays?, but they are still out there hanging. But to do so would mean I abandoned a personal goal, and I want to talk about them. And hey, it's my blog, and so here you are.

So this one is to bat cleanup, saying not nearly enough about them, but collecting all my notes.

Party People is a musical about the Black Panthers and the Young Lords gangs from the 60s. No, no, it's really good, in the music comes off the street, fits snugly with acting, has heart-felt, has engaged performances, and attempts to give a well-rounded view of the rise and fall of these community gangs in the 60s. The central theme is 60s revolution as reunion. A lot of old party members are gathered together by two of the new generation, Jimmy (Ruiz) and Malik (Christopher Livingston) both to commemorate and to be confronted with their past. There is not a lot of shirking of responsibility here, nor is there a surfeit of those responsible for the faults and failure of the revolution.

Except the revolution didn't really fail, did it, at least in terms of getting people to the table. The sixties were a messy, turbulent, violent, deadly time, and over the years that followed, it enabled more peoples moved out of the shadows and into the common discourse.The struggles of the era were not for nothing, in that it enfranchised people who were up to that point excluded from body politic.

The other thing I've noticed with both this play and the earlier All the Way was the casual nature of government infiltration. Back in the day, the government swore up and down they were not spying on its own people, yet here we are fifty years later when we are all "Oh yeah, we were spying on our own people". Which begs the question about currently declarations of innocence about federal-authorized crimes.

This was an excellent one, a ground-level response to All the Way. If it tours, go see it.

Troilus and Cressida is half a great play. The first half, the story of the union of the Trojans Troilus (Raffi Barsoumian) and Cressida (Tala Ashe), set against the greater epic of the Illiad, hums with the wit and verve of the best Shakespeare. Their marriage is arranged by Cresssida's uncle, the aptly named Pandarus, who is taken for a great comic turn by Barzin Akhavan. All of this is set against the Iraqi occupation, where the Greeks (Achilles, Ajax, et al) are Americans, and the Trojans are mideastern. Neither of the sides come off well, as the American Greeks are militaristic brutes, and the Mideastern Trojans (with the exceptions of the title characters) indolent elitists. 

Anyway, in the opening acts, Troilus and Cressida are united, Pandarus capers and connives, the Greeks posture and strut, and Cressida gives us the depth we come to expect from Shakespeare's women. And then after intermission, the wheels fall off. The play now concentrates on the Greeks and the Trojans and their war. Cressida is given to the Greeks as the price for her father's cooperation, but her story and that of Troilus gets lost against the backdrop of the war itself. Indeed, Cressida folds in on herself in a manner similar to Kate in Taming of the Shrew, throwing in with her new captors - a turn of events that is played in later presentations as a range from surrender and Stockholm syndrome to a knowing play for survival. But the truth of the matter is that we don't know the intent, and in this presentation, Cressida ends the play in enemy hands, her intent unknown, Troilus is in despair and gives himself up to battle, and the Trojans retreat with the body of Hector. It is a bleak ending that grinds home the merciless and unthinking brutality of war, but in doing so, undermines the work of the first half. It feels as if, in collecting this play, something was left out to bring it together, and as a result it lands with a thump.

The Very Merry Wives of Windsor, Iowa falls into the category of Shakespearesque plays - leaving the plot intact, but moving the verbage and setting elsewhere. In this case, picking up the pieces of the original Merry Wives and dropping it into modern, post pro-gay voting Iowa. So Master Ford and Mistress Ford are now Alice and Francie Ford, gay couple, the messages Falstaff delivers are by text, Windsor Forest is now the Iowa State Fair, and the famous laundry basket is now replaced with a recycling bin. And Sir John Falstaff, the brawling, lecherous, drunken antihero, is replaced with Senator John Falstaff, loser of the Iowa caucus.

And for me, that's where it all falls down. The acting is spot-on from all sides, turning Iowa into a mock-Shakespearean wonderland where Slender Shallow, a gender-changed chainsaw artist, sounds like Keaunu Reeves warping Shakespearean verse, and the Mistresses Ford and Paige shoving Falstaff around with great merriment. But Senator Falstaff (David Kelly) is portrayed as Romneyesque - Good hair, tall, charismatic, nice dresser, fast-talking. But Falstaff is also a womanizer, a drunkard, and chronically short of change, all of which cannot be attributed to Romney. So Senator Falstaff comes off as venal as opposed to overblown, a lesser-than-life figure. The end result is a bit of fun, but empty at the core.

Henry V, on the other hand, was one of the highpoints of the OSF, the resolution of the previous years of Henry IV Parts 1 and 2. Falstaff was promised to return at the end of H4P2, but the play opens with him dead and the manner of his death recounted by the former members of his court. Something happened here off-stage - I suspect (though do not have the resources to confirm) that the actor identified as Falstaff died or left the company between the two plays, and was so identified he was written out as opposed to recast. If he had perished, it was a fitting testimony to the character, if he had left the company, it was a bit of petty revenge. Someone with more Shakespearean knowledge than I could give a more decisive discussion (because I safely assume that, given the breadth of Shakespearean studies, someone likely has done so).

In any event, John Tufts was fantastic in taking Prince Hal fully into Henry V. This is the play with the great speeches, including the Band of Brothers speech and the positively meta narration of the chorus. There is a culmination here, both in history, in writing, and in acting. This is a moving performance, and one of the OSF's best.

We did, though sit next to a couple who came up from the Bay area just for the day, and they were slightly bewildered at the break about what was happening in the play. I told them that it was as if they had experienced Star Wars by seeing Return of the Jedi first, and then gave them a short potted history of the previous plays, so the scene where Henry killed one of Falstaff's followers suddenly makes sense. It was a great play, and a wrap-up of several years of this series of histories.

Animal Crackers is in the category of the non-Shakespearean Draw for the OSF - the non-Shakespeare play that can put butts in the seats. Pirates of Penzance did it the previous year, and it looks like My Fair Lady fits that category for the coming season. Yes, this is the Marx Brothers movie, and is based on a revival of the Kaufman play. I had a chance to read the revival text, and would have liked to have read the original play itself, just as a purist.

I say that because the play is dealing with so many veils of movie versions and revivals (just look at the credits, above) that the original material, slender as it is, gets a bit lost. The plot is grand dame Mrs, Rittenhouse (K.T.Vogt, Cinderella's Godmother in Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella), scores the coup of snagging Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding (Mark Bedard, or rather Mark Bedard playing Julius Marx playing Groucho playing Captain Spaulding) as a houseguest. Chico (Daisuke Tsuji, brilliant) and Harpo (Brent Hickley, rubber-faced) arrive as musicians for the house party. Zeppo (a versatile Eddie Lopez) is in the movie Spaulding's secretary, but here takes on a slew of roles as the manpower-heavy Broadway production is converted into a smaller revival. That conversion is done with a bit of wink-and-nod stagecraft. In any event whackiness ensues, and the conclusion to the supposed plot is no more sound than in the movie version.

The actors are playing within the expected bounds for the most part. Mark Bedard as Spaulding (as Julius as Groucho as, well, you know) felt weak even for the matinee performance, and he seemed to take some time to warm up to the role. Daisuke Tsuji, on the other hand, brought a Chico that understood that vaudeville is a competition sport, and had an infectious enjoyment. Yes the jokes were old but he delivered them as if they were newly minted. We had nosebleed seats, and the miking on the actors was inconsistent, a rarity for the OSF. Some were miked, others were shouting to the bleachers.

Yet the biggest failing in the production was at the core. The movie version thrived on sending the madcap Brothers Marx into a straitlaced upper class household. Here, the household is as madcap as the Marxes. Mark Evanier, over in his blog, talked about making a Marx Brothers movie where Margaret Dumont was trying to be the funny one. This one did exactly that, and while Vogt neatly stole more than her fair share of scenes, it undercut the entire operation. Looking at the text, it feels like the socially-ambitious Rittenhouse is the only truly honest person in a mansion filled with gossips, art-thieves, impersonators, and, of course, Marxes (Marxi? Marxeses?)

In the end, it was great fun, but the serious Marxist in me (did I just write that?) wanted something a bit more. I'm glad this was not quite the museum piece I expected, but by the same time, felt that it was a bit underdone. Definitely worth seeing in the great pack of OSF plays, but a bit tepid on its own.

So where did it leave me? Loved Henry, Party People, All the Way. Can appreciate Animal Crackers and Troilus and Cressida for what they were. Felt meh about Merry Wives., but STILL found it better than most other theatre. Still looking for an aspiring dramatic student to explain what Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella was all about. And I'm looking at next year's collection with interest.

More later, 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Season from all of us on Grubb Street.

More later,

Meanwhile, Out on the Internet ...

Well yeah, with the release of Guild Wars 2 coming on top of Midgard and Star Wars: Scourge novel earlier this year, I'm in a bit of dry period. So let's see what some friends are up to -

Stan! (yes, that exclamation point is supposed to be there) Brown has been doing a Kickstarter for his cuddly cthuloid Christmas story The Littlest Shoggoth. The book has already made its basic numbers, and with about a week to go, is into stretch goals. If he gets to 10K, you get color interiors. If he gets to 13k, there's a stylish hardback in your future?

But wait, there's more! Check out the latest video!


Also, Tracy and Laura Hickman are writing their own Christmas tale, in process and available on-line. They are writing it as a serial novel (shades of Dickens) and making the entire project available as an e-book on completion. Go can go check it out here.

And since I am talking about private artistic-based operations, old friend and mighty TSR artist Larry Elmore. What began as a modest Kickstarter to create a Complete  Elmore Artbook has blossomed into a cascade of ever-shattered stretch goals (the most recent one being an invite to drop by the house and go for a motorcycle ride with Larry).

And finally, while I was writing this up, I was surprised to discover that Midgard (the world I've been working on with the likes of Wolfgang Baur and Brandon Hodges) has its own potential miniatures line on Kickstarter. Yeah, I probably missed a memo or two in the process, but go check THIS one out as well.

I swear, I have to get back in the saddle again. More later.

The Political Desk: Wrapping Up

So the election has come and gone, and in Washington State, we have to wait for all the mail-in votes to show up to be certain (which, by the way, is a good thing), but a lot of races have been decided by the votes already cast. So here are the results as they stand right now. I put results different from those I recommended in Red, and comments in brackets.

Proposed by Initiative Petition
Initiative Measure No. 1185
(Retain supermajority to raise taxes) - YES

[I will start on a downer, in that we have a blind spot about wanting government services (good schools, streets, that sort of thing), but as a people are allergic to anything that smacks of paying retail prices for it. This will pop up a couple times in this discussion.]

Proposed by Initiative Petition
Initiative Measure No. 1240 
(Approve charter schools) - YES

[Currently close, but I'm not seeing any movement on it.]

Passed by the Legislature and Ordered Referendum by Petition
Referendum Measure No. 74
(Marriage Equality) - APPROVED

[My Facebook page is aflutter with suddenly-announced engagements]

Proposed to the Legislature and Referred to the People
Initiative Measure No. 502
(Decriminalize and regulate marijuana) - YES
[Let me set out warnings - This is the start of the process. A lot (including how this fits in with the national picture) still needs to be worked out. What it specifically means is that, starting 6 December, you can have an ounce of grass on you and not be prosecuted. On a greater scale, it is an interesting twist on the traditional "Power of the States Vs. Federal Power".]

Proposed to the People by the Legislature
Amendment to the State Constitution
Engrossed Senate Joint Resolution No. 8221
(Changing debt collection and definition of general state revenues) - APPROVED

[So, we can't raise taxes, but we can shift around definitions. I think what sold this was the promise to reduce debt, and devil take the details.]

Proposed to the People by the Legislature
Amendment to the State Constitution
Senate Joint Resolution No. 8223
(Allow Washington universities to invest in private companies and stock) - REJECTED

[This was the most clear of the state economic initiatives, and once explained clearly, was rejected.]

Advisory Vote of the People
Advisory Vote No. 1
Engrossed Senate Bill 6635
(Close a Loophole) - REJECTED

Advisory Vote of the People
Advisory Vote No. 2
Substitute House Bill 2590
(Extend a tax on oil companies) - REJECTED

[I called it legibabble at the time and stand by that judgement.Most people saw the phrase "Shall this tax increase be maintained?" and gleefully voted against anything that was called a tax increase. Note to future initiative-writers - call everything you don't like a tax increase.]

King County
Proposition No. 1
Regular Property Tax Levy for Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) Services
(What it says) - APPROVED

President and Vice President of the United States
Barack Obama and Joe Biden

[I'd like to say that Mitt Romney was the best possible candidate the Republicans had this year. And still that wasn't very good. No, you won't do better if you go out and offend MORE people next time.]

[The Dems pretty much run the table on this from here down. Spoilers.]

United States Senator
Maria Cantwell

United State Representative Congressional District No. 9
Adam Smith

Governor
Jay Inslee

[The loser in this race is not Rob McKenna, who made a strong attempt to woo the populous King County, but the Seattle Times, whose owner threw away its journalistic integrity to run full page ads for McKenna. When you're getting beaten on your reporting by the liberal stoners at the Stranger, you have strayed far from the path.]

Lieutenant Governor
Brad Owen

Secretary of State
Kathleen Drew or Kim Wyman

[There is always one race like this one - so close that a recount may be needed, no one can call it either way. Both were good candidates, but it is ironic that the office that oversees elections has a really close race].

State Treasurer
Jim McIntire

State Auditor
Troy Kelley

Attorney General
Bob Ferguson

Commissioner of Public Lands
Peter J. Goldmark

Insurance Commissioner
Mike Kreidler

Legislative District No. 11
State Senator
Bob Hasegawa

Legislative District No. 11
Representative Position No. 1
Zack Hudgins

[Again you're going to hear me whine about taxes. Jim Flynn was a One Issue candidate, but it was an issue I support. This was a lopsided defeat, beyond even the comforts of incumbency, and shows that no, we are not ready to have that discussion.]

Legislative District No. 11
Representative Position No. 2
Steve Berquist

King County
Sheriff
John Urquhart

State Supreme Court
Sheryl Gordon McCloud

Superior Court
Judge Position No. 42
Christopher A. Washington or Susan Parisean

[Future Hazy: Ask Again Later]

City of Kent
Proposition No. 1
Levy to Support Kent Parks and Street
(Yeah, that) - REJECTED

[Again, its that tax thing. ]

Are there lessons to be learned from all this? On a national level, the bulk of the people liked the centrist, wonkish leadership of the current administration, and have given the mandate to keep fixing the stuff we broke previously. On a state/local level, we're still grasping about on how to pay for the stuff we want. The good news is that the economy has been improving, particularly locally, and with that we will see some improvement to state revenues, but that's a dangerous thing to use for long-term planning.

More later.

The Food Desk

So, here's a break to talk about food.

Top Chef, a now-venerable cooking competition show, returns on Bravo this week with a the series set in Seattle. Meaning, that we get a lot of local foodie places and bumpers showing ferries. The trailer (I'd give you a link, but then you'd have to deal with insulting ads from Carnival Cruise Lines, who are big investors this season) shows them embracing the Seattle eating experience - Canlis, the Space Needle, and most of all, clamming. Yeah, that's the nastiest thing I think I can do to a bunch of out-of-town chefs - making them hunt clams on the Hood Canal.

While I won't link to the site, I will pass along this story from the Seattle Met about the filming this past summer. It was very much a stealth operation, an open secret that the media we encouraged not to dig too deeply into.

Speaking of Canlis, here's a much better video on the Staff Dinner for the restaurant.

More later,