50,000 Monkeys at 50,000 Typewriters Can't Be Wrong
My dream is to open a classic 80s arcade, complete with well-maintained minigolf, pizza, and waffle cones.
Here’s a look inside the Luna City arcade, which is exactly what I want to do one day:
(via Gizmodo. Thanks to Bob S for the link. RSS subscribers probably need to click through to see the video. Offer available for a limited time. Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.)
While I ramp up for writing more original fiction in 2008, I’ve been making an effort to read more books and watch more movies. Here’s a brief look at some of the things I’ve come across recently that I think are worth your time and money.
Books
Hammered
This is Elizabeth Bear’s first novel, and it kicks off the Jenny Casey trilogy that’s continued in Scardown and concluded in Worldwired. It takes place in a dystopian world that was plausible enough to give me chills, and is the first book I’ve read that I’d admiringly call post-cyberpunk.
Jenny Casey is a cybernetically enhanced former soldier living in post-war Connecticut, dealing with the ghosts of her past. When those ghosts come back to life, they ensnare not only her, but some of her closest friends, as well.
It took me longer than usual to get into the narrative, because the story changes point of view a lot in the beginning, but once I got all the characters straight, I was on board and it was difficult to put down.
This was one of those books where the main character is compelling, but the supporting characters are magnificent. I just loved it, and as soon as I finish Atrocity Archives, I think I’m going to finish the trilogy.
Coraline
Coraline lives in a boring house with uninteresting parents surrounded by strange people. But when she goes through a forbidden door and finds herself trapped on the other side with her Other Mother, her life suddenly becomes very interesting. It’s not quite horror, it’s not quite fantasy . . . I guess I’d call it a "dark fantasy," sort of the way Neverwhere was a dark fantasy. It’s a quick and thoroughly enjoyable read.
I wish this had been written when my kids were still young enough for me to read to them. I have number 238 of the limited Subterranean printing.
After Halloween
I got this book from Daniel Davis when I spent the weekend next to his
Steam Crow booth at Phoenix Comicon. It’s a children’s alphabet book
about what the monsters do to make a living after Halloween. ("E is for Ealwatte, a mage
of the dead / Now he crafts hats to adorn your bald head.") It’s all
rhyming, it’s charming and funny, and the illustrations are ridiculously awesome. In a world
where everything — especially children’s books and stories — are so
mindnumbingly banal and similar, After Halloween is unique and
wonderful. It’s another one that made me wish my kids were little
enough to enjoy it.
Graphic Novels
WE3
Grant Morrison is with Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, and Alan Moore on the list of authors I’ll buy anything from without even reading the back cover, so it’s weird that I just got around to reading WE3 now. (Actually, I started it when I was working on NUMB3RS, and just finished it on Friday. I got distracted, I guess.)
WE3 is about three domestic animals — a dog, a cat, and a rabbit — who are kidnapped by the military and turned into cyborgs to be used as weapons. When the project is going to be terminated and the animals destroyed, they’re set free by a well-meaning researcher. Much of the story is about them trying to survive outside of the lab, while they’re hunted by their former masters. I found it sad and touching. It’s also a story that, I think, only works as a graphic novel, making it pretty unique.
Batman: The Man Who Laughs
A new take on the introduction of The Joker into the Batman universe, this is set right after Batman: Year One, and could be a companion to The Killing Joke. I loved the writing, the shift in narrative between Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne, and the artwork was perfectly unsettling, without being disturbing. I’m a lifelong Batman geek, so it takes a lot to impress me with a Batman story. This impressed the hell out of me.
Fell Volume One: Feral City
Richard Fell is a detective sent over the bridge from a city that feels like New York to a totally fucked up place called Snowtown. In Snowtown, everyone has something to hide . . . including him. It’s classic detective stories, filtered through Warren’s sublimely twisted lens. I liked it so much, Fell could be the fourth comic to make it onto my single-issue list.
Movies
A Scanner, Darkly
My expectations were really low for this movie, after talking to some
friends about it, so I was pleasantly surprised. I thought the
acting, music, and animation combined very effectively, and I thought they did a better than usual job of
staying true to PKD’s story. Admittedly, this isn’t saying much, but it shouldn’t be misconstrued as a back-handed compliment. I genuinely enjoyed this film.
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
One of the most engrossing documentaries I’ve seen in years. On the surface, it’s the story of two men trying to achieve the highest score on Donkey Kong, but the story ends up being about much, much more than the quest for a high score on a video game; it’s about a group of petty sycophants doing everything they can to protect a cowardly tyrant whose tiny fiefdom is threatened by an honorable man. I lost a lot of respect for Twin Galaxies by the time the film was over. I also wanted to go spend a hundred dollars in an arcade.
Did you know that Walter Koenig (who, by the way, told me Happiest Days was "delightful," Squee!) created the character of Enik on Land of the Lost? Did you know that Harlan Ellison wrote a story for the show that was never produced? Oh! Oh! Oh! Did you know that David Gerrold came up with a whole backstory for the eponymous land that makes sense?!
I didn’t know any of this until I read the Land of the Lost Triviagasm at io9 last night.
When they announced it, I though io9 was going to be snotty, too cool for the room, and hideous (like most Gawker blogs, which seem to have have an attitude I outgrew in my twenties.)
They’re proving me wrong (like my opinion counts, right?) with content that’s consistently interesting and cool, and commentary that doesn’t seem to fit into the smug, condescending, dismissive tone that seems to be the Gawker model. It’s almost like they realized who their target audience is, and — gasp — actually respect and speak to that audience.
Speaking of Land of the Lost: did it scare the living daylights out of anyone else? I remember being scared by most of the Krofft shows, because they all seemed to feature kids who get separated from their parents and sent into a weird world from which they can never return, but Land of the Lost terrified me, even though the kids had their dad with them. Maybe it was because I was a young geek with an overactive imagination, but when I was nine or ten, it seemed to be the most plausible of all the Krofft shows.
Oh, and if you’re a fan of the Krofft shows, you should track down a copy of Pufnstuf & Other Stuff. It’s awesome.
In addition to being really funny, the latest xkcd is rather timely.
I was a vi or vim guy when I needed to use a text editor (that’s how I did most of the original WWdN updates, via ssh back in the old days,) and my standard line to give emacs fanboys was, "Emacs? Yeah, I’ve tried to use it, but I could never find the text editor."
Then we’d go back to arguing about stuff that really mattered, like which captain was better.
(Concluded from part two)
When I was done a few minutes later, I walked back to the hotel —
which was only about 100 yards away — and stopped into the hospitality
suite for some pretzels and water. Normally, I’d grab a beer and unwind
after a show, but I’m having sinus surgery next week, and I’ve been on
doctor’s orders to have absolutely no alcohol, pain relievers,
vitamins, or fun for the last two weeks, so I’d have to unwind the old
fashioned way: geeking out with my fellow nerds about various geek
things.
Or so I thought. When I walked into the hospitality suite, they were playing Rock Band. Oh yeah.
I played a few songs, and left when I realized I was at that point
where I’d either stop, or keep playing for another four hours. Since it
was already after ten, I’d gotten little sleep the night before, and I
had a big day ahead of me on Sunday, I chose responsibly and went
upstairs to bed.
It was pouring rain when I woke up on Sunday, but that didn’t keep
anyone away as far as I could tell. By the time I was in my seat at 10,
the vendor’s room was already filling up with people, and lines were
beginning to form at my table by 10:30.
Sundays are always slower than Saturdays, though, so I got a chance
to visit with the indie publishers and artists around me. As I talked
with them — mostly with Daniel from Steam Crow — I realized how much
I’ve changed since I started blogging.
In Just A Geek, I recalled a trip to San Diego ComiCon in 2001:
ComiCon was nothing like I had expected, and the truth is,
it was a horrible experience. I went there expecting to sell hundreds
of autographed pictures to hundreds of adoring fans, but hardly anyone
was interested. I sat in a cavernous and undecorated area far away from
the main convention floor, surrounded by people who were definitely on
the downside of their careers.
While talking with Daniel, I noted that we were talking about
publishing costs and marketing strategies. We were talking about about
building our respective brands, and how much more fun and rewarding it
was to do this stuff on our own, rather than the so-called
"traditional" (I call it "old") way of doing things.
"Just a few years ago," I said, "I rarely came to conventions as a
guest, because I felt like I was trying to hold on to whatever fading
celebrity I once had. I didn’t do it because I wanted to be famous
again. I did it because, at the time, it was all I could do,
which was so much worse. But now, when I go to cons, I feel good about
it. I look forward to it, because I feel like I can share the Star Trek
thing with people who love it, but I’m really here as an indie
publisher, just like you."
I thought for a second and added, "You know what it’s like? It’s like — "
"Don’t say ‘rising from the ashes’ while you’re in Phoenix! Don’t say ‘rising from the ashes’ while you’re in Phoenix!" My brain screamed at me.
"It’s sort of like rising from the ashes for me, in a way, which is a pretty lame thing to say since I’m in Phoenix."
"Do you even listen to me anymore? That’s it," my brain said. "I’m out of here."
"I am so lame" I said. Daniel and his wife assured me that I was not, but we all know better, don’t we?
Shortly after that, the con was over. I packed up my stuff, thanked
everyone who brought me out for the show — especially Matt, who runs
the thing — and got a ride to the airport.
One annoying game of Airport Madness! and a pretty bumpy flight later, my wife picked me up from the airport.
"How was your trip?" She asked me, when I got in the car.
"It was awesome," I said.
"Did you have fun? Did you get your geek on?"
"Yeah, I totally did," I said. "I can’t wait for next year."
I leaned over and kissed her.
"I’m happy to be home, though," I said.
"Yeah, I missed my husband," she said.
I still love it when she calls me "her husband."
"I love that I’m your husband," I said.
"Stop it."
"Sorry. I do."
"I like that a whole lot." She said.
"Yeah, it’s pretty awesome."
She pulled out into traffic, and we drove home as the rain began to fall.