I was in NYC (sorry Anders, I was smoking crack and completely forgot you lived there for a while) over Labor Day weekend and was able to catch the Apocalypse Now Redux on the big screen. Damn. I understand why they made the cuts they made, but the missing scenes do make for a more complete movie, with a greater sense of Willard’s journey up the river, which I always thought was too short. The re-added scene with the Playboy Bunnies almost broke my mind. Seeing the opening blast with The End playing on a screen larger that the gym at MSSM was also a treat.
So I went to GenCon for a day this Saturday. For those of you who don’t know what it is, GenCon is a massive 4 day convention for geeks of all kinds who like sci-fi/fantasy.
<p>This was my first GenCon, and I’d have to say that it is an utter success for 2 reasons:</p>
<p>1. I attended with 12 friends from college whom I haven’t seen in a long time.</p>
<p>2. I’m an utter cynic when it comes to things like this. Gencon can be a ton of fun if you don’t take it seriously.</p>
<p>Things of interest that I saw: <br />
guy in well done Predator costume<br />
more Stormtroopers than the Imperial Navy<br />
girl dressed up like Rimmer<br />
lots of chainmail bikinis on models<br />
chainmail dress with large woven links worn by a woman with nothing else on<br />
WotC getting shit on and beaten by the smaller gaming companies<br />
making of footage of Episode 2</p>
<p>The guy that did the presentation for Episode 2 was an utter dick. Lucas studios has totally bought into their own hype. On the plus side, we’re gonna get to see Yoda kick some ass, and Samuel L. Jackson’s gonna use a lightsaber.</p>
<p>Afterwords I went to the White Wolf party where Justin Achilli, the Vampire developer, was spinning up a storm, and danced the night away.</p>
Ummm….I really want to go back to the days in which I believed that the dark vision of the future, where corporations rule everything, was in the future, and not right now. Check this out.
I enjoyed this movie immensely. spelling? I felt they treated the subject matter seriously, and presented decently complicated topics in a manner that keeps ordinary audiences interested, and those who know a bit more of the technical side of things relieved that they don’t engage in a hideous amount of technobabble. Its more of AI philosophy anyway. I’d recommend it as a good way to spend 2.5 hours.
So my machine is grinding to a slow painful halt. I’ll be in the market soon for a new one, and I’m looking to spend hopefully under 1k for a good one. I need a bit of advice though. Any suggestions?
If you haven’t seen Invader Zim yet, check it out. Nickelodean, Friday, 9 eastern. It’s Johnen Vasquez’s new cartoon. Vasquez is the guy who does Johnny the Homicidal Maniac if you’ve heard of that. Both Zim and Johnny are hilarious.