I spent most of the weekend working on the book proposal, as well as re-familiarizing myself with my own game (it’s been a while since I’ve even touched the concept document for…. right now, I think I’ll just call it SB). Yesterday I sat down with the person who will be handling all the programming aspects, and went over the concept, core gameplay, controls, inspiration, etc. and he seems totally interesting. After years of not being able to go further, I’m glad to see that it finally might happen (at least I hope).
Despite the ever-increasing pile of work, I was able to blow off some steam, here and there. I caught Respecto Montolban on Saturday night. It was a pretty strong show (though from Respecto, it always is), despite the absence Jackie Clarke. Like any improv shows, all of the sketches are based upon an audience member’s suggestion. This time, Respecto asked for a life changing event, or something to the effect. Right before I could yell out “circumcisions” someone up front said “wearing white the day after labor day”, or something to the effect. Pretty lousy theme if I don’t say so myself, but the team did manage to get some use out of it (though it wasn’t easy). Later, they asked for “the awesome-est person in the audience” and some guy up front (the one who gave the really lame suggestion I think) jumped onstage and was interviewed by Chad Carter. Carter, who will always be Kenny Woodson in my eyes, did his best to get something interesting from the kid (he was a 10th grader) but that too was tough. Yeah, so maybe he was just nervous, but if you’re going to walk on stage to let everyone know that you are indeed the most awesome, you had better be fucking interesting. Anyway, they built a decent sketch out of his answers, which culminated in a gag that implies he jerks off to posters of roller coasters.
I ended up staying for the show after called The Soundtrack by the group Mother. The basic premise is audience members bring in their own music CDs, tracks are then selected and played, and the group (who are totally unaware of what has been selected) bases their sketches on what they hear. I had with me a mix CD of video game music complied by Dave in which I helped gather resources for. They ended up using quite a bit of Hip Tanaka tunes (stuff from Kid Icarus and Metroid, of course). As for the show, it was simply “okay.”
I also saw some movies this past weekend. Once again… I know it’s been said at least a few times that I was going to go over all the films I’ve watched the past few summer months in some huge monster post. But this was to be done in the event of nothing happening on my end, which clearly has not been the case, especially as of late.
So anyway, real quick I saw Hero which was good. Though I really can’t understand why there were still people in the audience who were giggling at all the long extended jumping and walking on water the characters performed. Okay, I understood the reaction during Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but come on…. welcome to 2000. Also, I can’t understand all the complaints regarding the “lack of fighting” in Hero… it’s nothing but swordplay!
Plus I saw Shaun of the Dead, which was simply awesome. I think it might be my favorite zombie movie of all time. And those Brits… they know their comedy. I’ll probably still catch it when it opens in American theaters this weekend.
And I sill can’t find anyone to see Resident Evil 2 with me….
One last thing: as predicted, EB totally dropped the ball. After days of getting the same “it’s on it’s way” bullshit reply regarding the status of Dog’s Life, I broke down and picked it up at Best Buy instead. So when I went into the EB to get my pre-order amount refunded, the woman who handled the transaction (and the one who’s been giving me the most trouble on the phone) gave me a look that was beyond icy. I guess she’s pissed over all the “trouble” they had to go through to get just one game, and the person who wanted it no longer does, so now they’re “stuck” with a game that no one’s ever heard of and no one will every buy. Boo. Fuckin’. Hoo.
Tomorrow, Katamari Damacy finally comes in, and as I’ve said before, they had better have it, or I will literally knock over a magazine rack.
