Last week was really rough. Not because of the RNC, though that didn?t exactly help my situation much. One of the more major projects I?ve been busy with for the past few weeks has been drafting a book proposal.
Long story short, I was recently approached to write a book and the subject is something that I?m a big fan of: Japanese comics (or ?manga? as the kids say?. that and Japanese people, of course). Naturally I?m pretty psyched for the chance to write an entire book about it (or any book really) but the first step is to create a proposal to help secure a publisher (which there?s already at least one very interested party) and a budget.
Problem was, the proposal (which are never easy to do in the first place) was a bitch to get finished because I was also had to deal with the one of the worst case of writer?s block in quite some time. You may have noticed a larger than normal amount of journal entries over the past week or so (at least until this past Friday). Well they were supposed to help exercise my brain, but that really didn?t work, though eventually, I got the damn thing done at 4 in the morning, this past Thursday.
And of course, getting three hours of sleep got in me in the right frame of mind at work, which happened to be the very last before last minute preps could be done classes officially began (which was today). Aside from indulging in another five-hour marathon session of surfing game forums, the last I?ll be having in quite some time, I also passed along a second kung fu related vid which I had also come across earlier in the week. But then I discovered from a second co-worker that the same exact clip was featured the night prior on the Jay Leno show; apparently he has some segment where ?some guy? scours the internet for interesting finds. I had been 1-uped by Jay fucking Leno, how embarrassing. It?s bad enough that his writers aren?t nearly funny enough to come up with their own material, they have to steal my fucking thunder!
Then during lunch, I discovered that my favorite Mexican restaurant in the whole city, Paquito’s on 3rd Ave & 17th Street, was no longer in business. That place was seriously one of the few remaining reasons for me to stay in New York. So then I decided to stroll to Yoshinoya and there was a sign on the door stating that it was their last day of business! What the hell?!?! I blame the fucking Republicans.
Speaking of which, and back to the RNC? that?s over too, thank God. At this point, virtually every single New Yorker is sick and tired of the subject (including myself), so despite the inherent need to go off another political tangent about how utterly asinine Bush and his speech was, I know it?s pretty pointless. After all, everyone already knows he?s a huge retard, plus now it?s Tuesday, and it really is old news.
But what I will do is quote from a recent New York Press cover story in which they cited 1001 reasons why the convention sucked. As much as I find almost all of the writing in the Press (along with it?s bastard cousin, the Village Voice) to be total shit, I have to admit that the article was pretty entertaining and totally spot on. Some of my favorites include?
998. Protest war stores from people who spent previous 364 days watching MTV.
990. Inevitable fights with spouse, who bristles when you say Kerry isn?t much better.
979. Bowlmor populated by folks who can actually bow.
911. NYC masseuses tired of explaining concept of ?happy ending.?
851. Finding out that there really is a way to increase traffic in Midtown.
824. SO, IS PENN STATION OPEN OR NOT?
823. SO, IS THE POST OFFICE OPEN OR NOT?
817. Sept 1 is moving day for thousands.
678. The Garden?s two jumbotron-style screens flashing ?THANK YOU NEW YORK? for days on end.
575. Bush Twins Activate!
535. NYU students inconvenienced.
532. But not enough.
470. ?Now that I?ve protested, I?m sure I?m on a list somewhere!?
409. Child prostitutes harder to find.
306. ?Margaret Cho Sells Out Apollo, Adds Second Show.?
297. Even more people mispronouncing ?Houston.?
281. The Park Dept.?s ?you?ll hurt the grass? excuse.
277. that stupid fucking walkway.
111. Hey hey, ho ho? Your tired, trite-ass sloganeering has got to go.
45. News media seeks out reaction of: Rosie Perez.
44. Increased Home Shopping Network sales of Ground Zero Silver Dollars.
34. The suspension of the 1rst, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 9th Amendments for the duration of the convention.
33. The possible abolition of the 3rd and 8th Amendments in the days and weeks following the convention.
12. What?s that country again between Syria and Iran called again?
So anyway, later that night, I met up with my friends Joe and June for dinner and a movie. I had sold the idea of checking out the plain as day piece of shit, the Butterfly Effect on Joe when I described the mind-blowingly absurd director?s cut ending, and I must confess, I too was morbidly curious to see if the shit I had heard was for real. And it was. I know I?ve mentioned before that I was going to go over all 700 films I had seen this summer in some monster movie rundown, but I?ll just say that I can?t decide what was funnier: the ending itself or hearing what Joe thought it was going to be, based upon a slight misinterpretation of my description (which despite sound really retarded, was just as ?plausible? as what actually happened).
June also passed along some horror storied relating to her roommates, who happen to be just like mine in terms of backgrounds and the such, but are even filthier if that can believed. As bad as mine are, at least I don?t have to worry about dead rats lying about or stepping in dog vomit.
On a similar note, and back to the subject of favorite New York eats disappearing, I went to Chinatown the next day to take care of some business and had a meal at the Co Luck Diner, easily the best Chinese restaurant that absolutely no one knows about. But this time their curry chicken over rice dish, which is my favorite, was rather lousy; first a favorite joint disappears, now a second goes to shit. There goes another reason to stick around?
Once a heaven for myself (my last girlfriend called it my most favorite place on earth, and at the time, she wasn?t too far off), Chinatown as a whole has totally lost it luster. Before there used to be at least five awesome places to shop for import games (this was during the height of the PSOne/Saturn/N64 era, with Dreamcast just hitting the scene), but now there?s just two (one of which I refuse to go to anymore for reasons I?ve gone over multiple times) and both are totally obsolete thanks to the internet. There?s also Hong Kong DVDs, but again there?s the internet. As for the Sanrio stuff, I?ve sorta gotten over that scene, and places like Toy Tokyo are now my source for Asian kitsch (as well as, once again, the internet). The arcade is only good for Scud Race (I still miss the tic-tac-toe chicken) and the whole place really does smell pretty bad after all.
The reason I was there in the first place was up a new modded PS2. I finally found that the other import shop, Penguin Village, does mods as well. Not only are their rates far better than J&L?s, but the guys there are just friendlier, and most importantly, they?re not fucking J&L. Unfortunately they were all sold out; I guess I shouldn?t be too surprised since the whole country is ?suffering? through a PS2 shortage, but when Chinatown is hit, you know its bad.
I just hope they get new units in soon, at least before the next round of games I have to review for GMR. I don?t even want to go into the details regarding how I?m able to do them thus far (which is an ?arrangement? that?s not going to last much longer).
But not having a PS2 of my own hasn?t stopped me from picking up games for the system. I finally got around to pre-ordering a copy of Gradius V in order to snatch the free bonus DVD. Gotta remember to also pre-order a copy of Katamari Damacy which just went gold. Plus I finally got seasons 1 and 2 of Trailer Park Boys on DVD (see, I do support the things I like? also much of the weekend was dedicated towards watching season 4 which I just downloaded) and Strangers with Candy seasons 1 and 2. With season 3 finally coming out soon, plus SCTV volume 2 coming next month, I have a lot of catching up to do. But back to games?
I also ordered the PS2 port of Virtua Racing, which came out in Japan as part of Sega?s 3D Ages line of budget revamps of arcade classics. Thus far, every title has totally sucked (well not so much Fantasy Zone, which I now totally regret not picking up this past spring at the Philly Classic Expo) but I?ve heard nothing but good things about V.R. (thank fucking God). Unfortunately, I?ve heard conflicting reports regarding the nature of the source code; some still claim it?s based up on the original Model 1 game, while others say it?s based on the 32X build, which is what it looks like to me. This is sorta lame news, but at least that was a solid conversion (though nowhere as impressive as the SVP driven Genesis port, for obvious reasons).
Sticking with Sega racers, the rumored bonus tracks for OutRun 2, featuring tracks from Daytona 2 and Scud Race has turned out to be very much true. A video started circulating last week that features a portion of the Daytona 2 track, which links the 2nd and 3rd tracks together, much like how arcade it does for the Extra Challenge course, which connects all three together.
It looked great? but they?re not perfect, which or course is a bit of a disappointment. Of course, I don?t mind some changes to the course designs themselves since they needed to make them fit for OutRun?s gameplay, but certain graphical details have been lost in translation.
All of this makes no sense since Digital Sumo, the dev group handling the conversion has thus far proven themselves, no doubt about it. Another more recent vid that shows the main game appears completely spot on. Even though it looks? I dunno?. different from the arcade version? every single nuance and detail is indeed present, in all it?s high-res, 60 fps glory. And again, Daytona 2 and Scud Race are older games on ?inferior? hardware, so the lack of proper reproductions is completely puzzling.
For a while I thought it was just nostalgia, but I was able to compare the footage with the originals, via an awesome site that has super-play vids of various racers. It?s awesome to be able to see footage of the arcade versions of Daytona 1, Sega Rally 1 (the Saturn version is so close, it?s fucking unreal), and Sega Rally 2 in action, The only thing missing is Sega Touring Car.
Though regardless of the end result of the bonus tracks, I?m just happy that they?re there, and I just wish others would feel the same way. As much I enjoy hearing from fellow Sega fan boys on the Game Age Fourms, everyone?s nit-pickiness regarding the subject is officially nauseating.
Also from the GAF, here?s a thread from another forum that explains why Duke Nukem will never come out cuz it?s too close to the truth, or so says the others. It?s seriously worth a read and a great reminder how first person shooter really can fuck up your brain. And here?s a link to some awesome heavy metal flavored remixes of Metroid tunes. My favorite track is easily the Item Collect song since it?s my fave video game jingle of all time, but what?s most impressive is the Norfair track since it?s the only time anyone has been able to remix that tune with any semblance of success (granted the Minibosses did a good mix, but it really didn?t stray too far from the original).
In other game related news, Playboy is doing a spread featuring video game characters. There?ll be a few ?sexy game babes? mostly from fighting games like Nina from Tekken and someone from Mortal Kombat who?s sure to look dumb and have a really retarded Todd McFarlane-esque name. But they won?t be appearing naked? that honor is reserved for the Nazi fighting, blood sucking sexpot herself, Bloodrayne. What, no topless Princess Toadstool?
Back in the real world, the first annual iGames Expo will be taking place later this weekend. Even though it?s primarily a PC oriented affair (well it?s basically just a huge lan-party), it?s still a video game related shindig in NYC, so I?ll be there, though it certainly helps that I?ll be there for free, on the behalf of Job at Gamer?s Nite Groove.
Speaking off, they?re throwing another party on opening night, and again Sammy is the sponsor, with some Xbox game that I?ve never heard of called Iron Phoenix in the spotlight. At least Guilty Gear Isuka will be on hand.
Once again, since things like this is far and few between in Manhattan, it?s important that they get as much support as possible, despite any inherent lameness that might be apparent (like the doomed to at least disappoint GameOnNY), but in this case, I think it might actually be something worthwhile. First off, the iGame folks seem to have their shit together (much more so than the organizers of GameOn) and the Hammerstein Ballroom is a fine venue (at least for hardcore professional wrestling).
Plus tomorrow night on PBS there?s going to be a documentary called “The Video Game Revolution”. Considering this is PBS we’re talking about, I’m confident that it’ll be a great overview of the subject, unlike the usual garbage that outlets such as MTV or Spike TV or even the “official network for video games” G4TechTV is more than happy to provide. So sorry guys, don’t expect to see any porn stars or David Spade.
And during the day, I?ll be checking out Alien Hominid at press event taking place. I?ll going on the behalf of Insert Credit, so look for a report on that end soon thereafter.
But tomorrow is a significant day for an entirely different reason. Besides being the second day of the new school year (today was the first), it?s also my one-year anniversary working at the Computer Art Department. And it?s the first time ever in which I?ve been able to hold a steady job for over one year. Every single previous job, from Ubi Soft to Medieval Times to even my first stint at SVA as a Macintosh repair/help desk specialist, I was let go, often just a day or two shy of my one year start date. I think to celebrate, I might stop by Krispy Cr?me. I think I deserve it.
