Category: Uncategorized

So, I’ve been wondering how Debo’s move to Phoenix has been going. Twitter is helpful certainly, but little did I know his journey would be featured in today’s Golden age Comic Book Stories post of all places.

Looks like it’s going long just fine.

Now, I’ve never been to the self-proclaimed America’s Fair, so I suppose I shouldn’t judge. I will tell you, though, that an event which features both pig races and slot machines just doesn’t sound like my thing.

Of course, if this is going on, I may just have to swing in.

Great news! BBQ Beef, which was withheld from us for so long, has returned! Perhaps this was all simply a ploy to make us appreciate the delectation all the more.

Revising the play, and this has given me cause to reflect on that most geeky of pastimes — cosplay.

While I do enjoy Halloween more than most, I recognize that dressing up in character for a movie premiere or other geek event crosses the line of normalcy. Too bad, really. People went crazy trying to dress up like newly Jetted Brett Favre, and no one seems to mind.

Sure, more often than not cosplay, as evidenced by these pics from comic-con, ends up with scrawny guys trying to look like super-soldiers …

fat men dressed as super-soldiers….

and women dressed in utter teenage-geek-fantasy skantitude…

but sometimes the hobby/obsession can yield some impressive recreations.

The trouble is that comics and video-games, being visual media, are of course going to depict impossibly good-looking people in physically improbable clothing. You can dress your average person up like Green Lantern all you want, but it’s going to look strange unless he’s body-builder with plastic sprayed on his skin. And even then.

Holy crap learning Japanese is hard.

So, there are four different alphabets. One is based in the Latin alphabet, which is nice, but it’s only used to communicate with stupid gaijin like myself. There are two phonetic alphabets, one of which is only used for words imported from other languages. (After what date, I’m not sure). But the main alphabet is pretty much only used in kindergarten books, since the inscrutable kanji make up most of the written language.

To add to the fun, there are four different levels of formality in speech, and the grammatical rules apparently change for each. Awesome.

Greenfern was featured in an article on Buffalo Rising, which is the closest thing to publicity we’ve managed so far. Not a strictly accurate article, but any word is good word, right?

9/22 is that date of the RLTP reading of The Alpha Geek, which should be an enlightening experience. I mean, you can write this stuff, but can you say it?

I’ve started teaching myself Japanese. More updates later.

End of line.

We’re rapidly approaching the next phase in the project, the one where actual actors get up and do a reading of the play. The director emailed me today to discuss, and asked me this question:

If I were to select 4or 5 sci-fi or fantasy movies to watch as dramaturgical research – what would they be?

Holy crap! Now there’s a question for the ages. My response below:

Certainly LOTR and Star Wars. I recommend the Sci-Fi Channel’s mini-series Dune (not the movie from the 70’s). Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is a good, accessible anime movie based on a well-known Japanese video game series. For fantasy, Stardust and Willow are both fun watches. There is a Dungeons and Dragons movie which I did not watch, but may be good for research purposes. Also, there is a documentary called Trekkies about the extreme end of hard-core Star Trek geekdom about which I’ve heard nothing but positive reviews and certainly depicts the kind of people we’re talking about.

*snif* I’m so proud. An acolyte of my very own!

OK, ladies. Looking for a way to attract the attentions of a book-lover like myself? Try this perfume. Guaranteed to turn the pencil-necked heads of owl-eyed Classics majors everywhere. I’ll be honest — I don’t think I can be expected to be held accountable for my actions if I smell this on someone, so if you want avoid a tawdry night of discussion on Sir Orfeo, use it with care.

I quite unexpectedly felt genuine chills at one point in this BBC Olympics ad. If there were any doubts left that Jamie Hewlitt is mega-talented, please put them to rest.

Yep, still ludicrously busy. Not quite Garvey busy, but close.