PAX be with you

So, thanks to the good offices of buddy Karmin, today I attended PAX Prime, the Penny Arcade-sponsored game-centric expo right here in the Emerald City. Karm is going all four days of the long weekend; I just signed on for Saturday and Sunday.

I must admit, a lot of the stuff went right past me: I have never been a console gamer, so the platform wars, hardware, and all that stuff isn't even on my radar. There was a whole slug of tabletop stuff, much more my speed, but it was a slog to try to get through it and actually watch a demo. We attended one panel on player-developed narrative in gaming, which sounded promising but failed for lack of a strong moderator.

Overall, it was an exhausting day that felt like a lot of wheel-spinning, but I'll try it again tomorrow.

Here's a little video impression of today:

Doin' it right

So, today was Free Comic Book Day again! You might recall that my FCBD experience last year was a bit disappointing and I told you all about it; well, this time, one of my local comic shops did it right, so I'm going to make a big deal of that, too!

Dreamstrands Comics in Greenwood turned the day into a special event - I felt like I was at a preview of Geek Girl Con. Let's go to the videotape!

I was pleased to see (a) so many people supporting a local business (b) so many families coming out together for a little fun and (c) a retailer who went the extra mile to show he gets what this should be all about. 

Pleased but not surprised by that last: Dreamstrands has consistently delivered great customer service every time I have shopped there.

The FCBD give-aways they had this year were great. Here are a few:

I found a new hardcover, The Atomic Legion from Dark Horse. It looks like a slightly goofier take on the same sort of themes explored in Marvel's The Twelve, with great EC-esque artwork.

And look what I found in the three-for-a-buck bin! Some online price guide I selected at random says it's worth four bucks - woo-hoo! 

Actually, I have a friend who is a Dazzler completist, and I am not sure she has this.

So, congratulations, Dreamstrands, for doing it right. See you next year!

Mash kicking

So, some time ago, I was readying some observations about the state of mash-ups. Examples of this internet idiom are ubiquitous - you can't go to Tumblr or any pop culture aggregator site without running across one pretty quickly; sometimes two or three pieces in a row will be about mash-ups. The one that kicked off my rumination was this one - "Charlie Brownson" it's called:

I don't get it. After the initial shock of the juxtaposition, what's there? Does this tell me anything? I mean, some mash-ups illuminate one thing by mashing it against another - if I insert the crew of Serenity into the Breakfast Club poster, I am (hopefully) letting you know something about how to see each of the characters. Turning the Justice League into a D&D party says something about the creator's understanding of both superheroes and tabletop RPGs. Turning Calvin & Hobbes into Lex Luthor and the Joker was actually a work of small genius, explicating all four characters.

But this? Charlie Brown's chronic depression will lead him to soul-killing violence? What? What?

As I said, I was readying these observations in the hopes of producing a short essay, but it seems that the watershed has already been reached and all hope is lost. Check this out:

It's masterful, I'll give the guy that. There's about 200 movies beautifully edited together there - that must have taken a lot of work. And his choices were almost all OMG-epic. But to what end? There is no consistency of visual tone or sensibility, much less any sort of narrative energy, even implied. I see that the guy who made this is a trailer editor by trade, and I imagine this functions as part of his portfolio, but I swear it is so po-mo that it makes my ears bleed.

Has it come to this? Do we just want the cool bits of everything thrown in a blender to enjoy without intent, or meaning, or message?

Man, it's enough to make someone want to read a book.

More than meets the why

On a trip to Spokane this weekend to visit some friends, we were treated to a demonstration of a pal's snazzy Volkswagen Eos convertible... and it was just geeky enough to make this blog instead of the other one. Here, take a look:

Full disclosure - shown at 150% speed to match the music.

D&D Film Festival

So,  here's a collection of some D&D music videos, just because the game is on my mind, what with a new campaign coming up and all.

First is Tonight by Allie Goertz:

I should listen to more of this young woman's stuff: she's pretty good.

In response, we have Best Game Ever by Mikey Mason:

Mason can be a little over-the-top, but I find this and some of his other stuff pretty funny.

Finally, my favorite pair of Geek Girls, The Doubleclicks, with This Fantasy World:

Angela and Aubrey played a coffeehouse near me on their last visit to Seattle. If the fire marshal had come by, they would have shut the place down, it was that crowded. If you need geekcore music, these are the girls to come to.

Man, I wonder if the new campaign will have a bard...

Geek Girl Con 2012

This weekend is Seattle was is (it's still going on) Geek Girl Con 2012.  I wrote about this event last year, when I attended the inaugural event; the con has already picked up a head of steam, grown in size and depth, and moved to a bigger and better location. GGC is ahead of the curve and well on its way to becoming a Big Thing®, and I'll be able to say I was there Back In The Day.

I can't go today and so could only attend yesterday's session, and I didn't even get to stay around for the Con-Cert, which included one of my favorite alt-nerd sister acts, The Doubleclicks, always one of the biggest draws (for me) at any geek event. But even though I could only attend for a brief time, I got the same great feeling of inclusion, community, and creativity that I felt last year - this really is a special kind of event and one of the few occasions that makes me wish I had a daughter, if only so I could bring her here.

I made a smartphone video again, this time focusing on the cosplay and crossplay. I hope Angela & Aubrey don't mind that I used their music for the background.