Yesterday was pretty eventful. First off, spotted Abe Vigoda on the street. That was pretty awesome. It was on Broadway, near Astor Place; I was killing time, before meeting up with Mike, and decided to head down to Gamestop, and there he was. He was kinda limping, and had to walk with the aid of a woman, whom I’m assuming is his wife. But otherwise he looked… like Abe Vigoda. Point being, dude is not dead.
I next went into Gamestop, to nab a copy of BlastWorks, the Kenta Cho Wii game. I can’t even remember when I first heard that Tumiki Fighters was coming to a console, with some “modifications”… all I know is that it was a while ago, and was reminded of its very existence thanks to the Nintendo Channel just this week. Also for whatever reason, I thought the game had already come out, and since way under the radar games are often impossible to find here in NYC, I decided to begin my search at the Astor Place Gamestop, which of all the ones in the Big Apple, actually has the best track record in terms of people that knew what they were talking about, and relatively little bullshit in general. Though not this time. As is often the case, no one knew what the fuck I was talking about, or if they did, everyone kept confusing it with that EA Spielberg game, Boom Blox. I would later find out that the game hasn’t even come out yet.
Anyway, on my way out and to meet up with Mike, I ran into Dave Mauro’s friend, Mallory. I mentioned how I saw Abe Vigoda, and she got all excited. “The entire band?!” So apparently there’s a band called Abe Vigoda. And she had no idea who the real Abe is. Man, that made me feel old (Mallory’s like 19). Afterwards, I finally met Mike at Guitar Center and decided to pick up some stands… for my Guitar Hero guitars. Yup. Pretty silly, I know. The dude behind the counter who rang me up was really nice to me, mostly cuz I was the only customer there who wasn’t clearly high.
Anyhow, we then headed over to Mike’s place in Carol Garden, to record the very first installment of the fort90podcast! It was purely a test run, for Mike to see if his equipment was up to snuff (which it was… for the most part) and for myself, to get a feel for things. I actually used to do a talk radio show at SVA for about two years, for WSVA, its college radio outfit. This was way before serious money and technology was pumped into the station, which meant that no one really listened to it, cuz one technically could, unless they were lived in the dorms or was at one of the two student lounges. No offense to my fellow broadcasters at the time, but the girl before me… who was this really uptight, fat goth chick… was so bad that I once saw three kids tear down the speaker in the photo building’s lounge in reaction to her musical selections, which effectively killed my audience by half. Can’t blame them though. Anyhow, I played a few songs… mostly tracks directly from Sega Saturn games, but for the most part, I just sat around and bullshitted for an hour with a co-host, and the occasional guests.
I used to think podcasts were kinda gay, till I finally came across one was genuinely awesome, at least in my book (sup Bryan), but I still believe ones that simply feature some dude just sitting around with his friends, yaking away about dumb shit, with the pretense that such inane interactions are somehow interesting to those outside of said dude’s circle of buddies, yet I genuinely believe that when Mike and I sit and talk about stuff, it is actually kinda fun and interesting, even to strangers (Lord knows our get together at Grassroots turns plenty of heads). Enough for people to encourage the idea of a podcast in the first place (it was never my idea, but being ego centric as I am, I certainly didn’t shoot it down when it first came up).
So how did it go? Okay I guess. I mean, it was a test run; the basic plan is for the show to be around the 45 minute mark. And what exactly will it cover? I guess the same stuff that’s discussed here, and over at the forum: video games first and foremost, along with talk about film, music, and all sorts of other stuff (though I can’t imagine talking about awesome YouTube videos will be all that entertaining). Plus interviews! Mike, who is the co-host, and I actually went for about an hour… it was hella fun to do, and I’m sure friends will get a kick out of listening to the thing, but I have to wonder if complete strangers would get it, or even hang in there. I had drafted a basic outline, but we just kept going on all these tangents, as amusing as they were; just some of the things that were covered was my disdain for baseball, as well as body hair on a woman, as well as how my nice my ass is, and hence why I should NEVER go to prison, plus my love for “nerdy” girls, how Steve Jobs is probably a Scientologist, how I’m happy my childhood orthodontist is now dead, memories from working at Burger King, various points that Mike believes is perfect fodder for the FBI to throw me in jail, and a billion other things, all from talking about GTA IV.
I actually decided to restart the show when things went REALLY of course, though once again, we just kept going on tangents for another twenty minutes, till a fan in Mike’s PC blew, which necessitated the end of recording. And listening to it afterwards, all I could do is cringe… mostly because I hate the sound of my own voice (then again, who doesn’t?) and how I made so many rookie mistakes, such as constantly going “ugh” and “like” a million times. But it took a while to get out of that habit for my radio show, and I believe I can do it again. Yet its still so raw that I’ve decided not to distribute a link to the recording, even in the Secret Chamber for the select few over there. Though I am passing it along to very small number of folks, to gather feedback. The plan is to maybe do another test session next week, maybe even the real thing. Hopefully by then, Mike will also have the official theme song ready to! I just have to email him my favorite color and a scene from a movie to help fuel his creative juices.
Oh, so afterwards, I hopped on the train back to Manhattan… though not before taking a stroll over to Rocketship, to see if they were still open. Once I arrived in Washington Heights, I stopped by the deli to get some milk, then finally headed over to my building… and thought I heard my name. I looked around, yet saw nothing. Mind you, I was listening to music via my phone/mp3 player. But I then heard my name again, and this time decided to look up. And there was Katie, on the roof of our place, waving frantically. I immediately assumed that she was up there having a smoke, as she often does, and wanted me to join her. That was till I heard her say “I’m stuck here!”
Here’s her side of the story…
“so last night around 7:45 i went up to our building’s roof to have a smoke before getting to work on some comics stuff. it was a pretty windy and cold last night, but i didn’t bring my jacket because i figured i’d be up there five minutes, tops. as soon as i got onto the roof, a gust of wind SLAMMED the door shut behind me, and sure enough, the door was locked. this has never been a problem before- matt and i have been using the roof for about two months now, and not only has the door never locked, it never even seems to close all the way.
all i had were my keys, a lighter, and one cigarette. my plan was to watch for matt coming out of the A train station, which you can see from the roof, and yell to him. i just had to hope to god he didn’t take the 1 train or a cab home. so while it was still daylight i took turns pounding on the door then scanning people on the street who looked like our neighbors that i could possibly yell to. i ruled the fire escapes out as way too scary.
it was a weird feeling to just be trapped outside like that. and it eventually got really cold. but thankfully i found matt and got through to him even with his headphones on.
i wonder if someone complained about us using the roof and set the door to lock?
… Needless to say, I’m glad Rocketship was closed when I stopped by, otherwise poor Katie might have been on the roof, freezing for another hour or so. Now, when Mike and I went to use the roof earlier this week, which is where we’ve been boxing, someone on the very top floor finally saw one of us go upstairs, which had yet to happen up till this point. It was some woman, who totally have me the evil eye, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she complained or something. Fucking bitch.
As for today, the big highlight was having lunch with Jason and finding out that firecrotch dot com, which we had created years ago, has finally been sold. It was originally created as the home for our game, Jizzmoppa, but we later decided to use it for something else…. basically a destination for porn. Problem was, despite personally knowing a ton of cute girls, none of them would pose naked for me to take picture. It’s not like I really asked… okay, not true, I did ask a few.
I was actually going to see Speed Racer, all by myself, since almost no one I know is even remotely interested in seeing such “animu-infused bullshit” as Dick at movie night on Wednesday called it. And he’s totally spot on, btw… as someone else also pointed out, the only reason I’m interested in it is because the movie looks like F-Zero, which is also very much true. BTW, I forgot to mention last time that I finally saw the trailer for the new Indiana Jones before Iron Man last week, and I am now officially interested, after many months of not giving two shits (at least not enough to simply check out the previous trailer online like everyone else had). I’m sure it won’t be as good as the others, but for whatever reason… I think it was the music… I’m totally in the mood. They also had the latest trailer for the new Hulk movie before Iron Man, and I am still not all that convinced that it looks like total shit. Perhaps this, along with my actually wanting to see Speed Racer, is proof positive that I have no taste. Whatever. Just call me out three years from now, after you’ve seen some shitty remake of some awesome Asian film I saw at this upcoming Asian Film Festival, thanks.
And as for this weekend, there’s another shindig going on at my place, this time being thrown by Katie, which will feature lots of French music. And I’m hoping to get a bit further in Persona 3, to finally have a review ready by next week. I will say this… one of the main reasons why I stopped playing RPGs in general is that they are not good for someone who has OCD. I’m the type of person who has to get every single item in a dungeon, or talk to every single person in a town… at least three times…. to make absolute sure that I haven’t missed anything. Now, the fact that Persona 3 is a rogues-like kinda lets me let off the hook on that end, since each dungeon is different each time I play it, meaning no matter how hard I try, I’m never going to get “everything.” Which is alleviates a lot of pressure for me, hence why this is the first RPG I’ve enjoyed in years (being anal retentive back during the days of 16-bit RPGS was at least somewhat manageable, since the dungeons in Phantasy Star 4 were nowhere as big and plentiful as they are in, say, Final Fantasy 12). But its the other aspect of the game… all the socialization that its involved… that brings out the other really bad personality trait that I have, that being how commit-phobic I am. I can’t tell you how many times I will replay from the same save point, over and over again, to make sure I’m making the right choices with the right people. And since the setting is in high school, I’m not talking about joining the right party, or choosing the right sword, I’m talking about choosing the right guy-friend to waste a lazy Sunday afternoon with, or saying the right thing to some girl at the coffee shop to give me some. And instead of choosing between which villagers to help out in whatever side-quests, I have to figure out if I should attend kendo practice, help the student council, or get some ramen after school. Choices, choices, choices… I guess I’ll elaborate in my upcoming review.
