This Week in Geek (22-28/10/07)

Buys

A few cursory purchases this week. Amazon sent me the two Grindhouse movies, Tarantino's Death Proof and Rodriguez' Planet Terror. Missed them at the cinema since a long double feature isn't good business, and 8 theaters full of Underdog, four times a day is. And it's no surprise a Tarantino Special Edition didn't take long this time. I always said it was all about pairing him up with Robert Rodriguez on a project. That man is a DVD-making machine!

Haven't been going to the comic book store lately, on account of their inability to order enough copies of the only rags I buy (no Brave and the Bold for me). Walked in just to get Showcase Presents: Metal Men. I think you understand why.

"Accomplishments"

Flipped Michael Palin's Pole to Pole this week, a 9-episode journey along the 30th meridian made in 1991 just as all the countries were collapsing. I was particularly interested in how state markets work in the Soviet Union (a bureaucratic madhouse), and I always wondered what was on that northern island (Swedenborg). Now I know. Always genial, Palin takes us through Europe and Africa (not easy), suffering many setbacks along the way. A more recent 30-minute interview tells us what we missed when the cameras were off.

 

Finished The Art of Destruction a New Who novel by Stephen Cole, which I'd abandonned on page 100 to read Kavalier & Clay. It's no secret that these New Who books look nice, but are written for a younger crowd and so a little thin. Picking this one up in the middle, I realized why I'd left it there. There's an inordinate amount of running away from things, then an inordinate amount of twists and reveals. Gets better towards the end with various alien factions fighting over a treasure trove in Africa, but it's still not much more than a runaround.

For my own Doctor Who project, I made 15 new cards from Father's Day, from Series 1. Just reading the script and looking at pictures of this one makes me tear up. I also indulged in a little "CGI" for this one:
Had an improv show Wednesday, basically an improvised sitcom that lasted an hour and a half. I got to play the "Kramer" character, i.e. the moron with this crazy life who just impinges on everybody else's. And having finally watched Big Bang Theory on everyone's advice and found it lacking, I proposed to make my character a geek. But he became a sporty geek, prone to playing snow soccer with his D&D buddies, and practicing Klingon martial arts to clear his head. Best bit: Having received an office memo about cultural diversity, he started an elf on World of Warcraft.

Speaking of Warcraft, got my Lynda with a Y to level 66, so up another level this week. At this rate, it's lvl 70 in a month. In other fantasy news, a particularly wicked drinking binge took away one my rpg players, so last night's prep work has gone to waste (the hook was centered on him). I hate it when that happens. But we made the best of it, advancing another subplot instead and visiting an inn in the Abyss. A good time was had by all left.

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