This year was perhaps the busiest ever Halloween-wise. First off was the GWAR show on Wednesday night. On Friday, I took MK to the UCB Theatre for Killgore the Musical. Killgore has been a Halloween tradition for myself, Dave, and John for four years now (we started seeing it before it became a musical). Besides MK and I, there was Dave and Raina, John and Marion, plus Miss and Kevin (along with MK, it was their first time at Killgore, and MK’s fist UCB show ever).
The story revolves around a narcissistic psychotic who seeks to summon the demon Killgore by killing an assorted train wreck of losers and sinners. Along for the ride is a wheelchair bound person who’s paying the crazy to eat him alive (he feels there’s more dignity in being eaten by a fellow man than worms) and helps to carry the narrative along.
I should also mention that the show is crazy bloody. There’s murder and mayhem all throughout, with people getting gutted, hearts exploding, and various body parts being torn off and used to bludgeon their formers owners. Thankfully, our gang is sorta connected with the theater so we all got seats reserved… seats that was out of the line of fire, so there was no fear of getting splattered with blood. Hey, I got my fill at the GWAR show, thank you very much (plus I really can’t afford to have yet another pair of pants ruined).
The show was awesome in it’s original incarnation, but the songs by Brian Fountain (formerly from the group Manson Roast, an early fave amongst myself and others at the theatre, as well as the guy who hooked us up with the choice seats) which were added last year, really takes the show to another level. And of course, the all star cast, which is a who’s who from the world of the UCB, was also awesome, though I did miss Rob Riggle’s portrayal of the porn star director (he’s too busy being underutilized on SNL this year). Thankfully, Chad Carter (a.k.a. Kenny Woodson) was still the washed up porn star with a four foot long dick, though there seemed to be less public hair this time around. Another change from this last year’s show was when the psychotic helped the backwater couple (the mother and her lover/son) deliver this incest baby: shortly after the mom was gutted and the baby pulled out, the crazy forced the new father to kiss is new daughter/sister, and then the head of his dead father. The effect was funny, with this fake head just dropping from the ceiling for a genuinely bizarre moment. But this time, no floating dismembered head. Though nothing tops the Killgore herself for drop-dead strangeness. And nothing will ever replace the shock we all got when first seeing her on stage, which marks the show’s finale. It truly is impossible to describe.
Afterwards we all saw Team America, and as expected, it was pretty damn funny from start to finish. I think I completely lost it when the team members had to fight panthers. Also, I knew that the songs would be insanely awesome (it’s impossible to pick a fave, so I’ll go with both “Everyone has AIDS” or the montage song), but I wasn’t expecting the film to look as technically amazing as it did. The puppets, the sets, it all looked amazing. Plus the vomit scene I had heard so much about totally lived up to the hype. I had wanted to see the movie a while a ago, but MK has a real aversion to vomiting in films, so while it played out, I had to cover her ears while she hid her face. Too bad she’ll never fully know all the awesomeness that she missed out on…
And in case anyone was wondering, the film’s portrayal of Korean variety shows was all too accurate for me.
Plus I love how the South Park guys have the magical ability of exposing people’s hypocrisy. Like when people say they love South Park, but then complain when that one episode comes along that “went over the line.” Same thing here: I know quite a few folks that wanted to enjoy the film, since they’re totally against the arrogance pro-American attitude the film lambastes, but were turned off by the portrayal of the liberals and Hollywood, in particular Michael Moore. I even heard one person say that it goes to show “conservative” Trey Parker and Matt Stone really are. Give me a fucking break…
The next night, on Saturday, was a party at Miss and Kevin’s place. Since I didn’t have much time and money to put together the costume I originally had in mind (Captain N the Game Master), so I simply put on a suit, and my La Parka mask, and went as a Mexican wrestler running for congress. MK Reed had a very nice and elegant dress for the party, so she posed as my wife/campaign booster. She had a real costume, that of John Wilkes Booth, but chose not to wear it since it only works with her friend, who’s Abe Lincoln, and that person was not around. So they’re both dressing up for a party later this week (yeah, I know.. a Halloween costume party on November 6th). Since the election will be long over (thank fucking God), I will have to change my attire a bit: I’ll be a Mexican wrestler that sells insurance or something.
Anyway, we got to their apartment a bit early, and caught a good deal of Zen Pussy, which is basically an hour long tape of women’s vaginas shot straight on and up close. And that’s basically it. I don’t think there’s even any music, though Kevin did play Tori Amos “for effect”. John and Marion showed up soon afterwards and were dressed like Quidditch players, and their costumes looked positively awesome. John has a real talent for making costumes, and this year his skills were again in full effect. But the real highlight was … get this…. a girl dressed as a sexy raccoon!
We all pigged out on the mountain of good food provided by the hosts and watched some movies, including Ginger Snaps 2 (everyone there seemed to dig the flick, but I couldn’t get into it, though I did enjoy the scene where all the troubled teenage girls started masturbating in unison) and Make Them Die Slowly. It’s another grisly Italian horror flick that’s been “banned across the globe”, so anyone who’s seen Cannibal Holocaust will know what to expect. In fact, it’s practically the same damn flick: it starts out with the obligatory use of stock footage of New York City, is filled with Italian actors who portray scientists from NYU or Columbia and say English lines poorly (and are then overdubbed with even worse English voiceovers), the boring as hell twenty minute traveling into the jungle by boat sequence, scenes of senseless violence against innocent animals (again, a poor turtle get his heads and legs chopped off), and of course, people getting eaten. The best scene had some guy getting his dick chopped off and then eaten right in front of him. But then the hole gets cauterized so the dude doesn’t bleed to death. Now that’s sick.
I had brought Karate Ruler along (when I suggested to Miss and Kevin that I bring it to the party at the UCB show, Dave and the rest of the gang all gave an enthusiastic “YES!”) but a few wanted to watch the rest of SNL instead, which… surprise!… wasn’t very good.
As for Sunday, the actual day of Halloween, I had to get up super early to assist Joe deliver some artwork to GWAR who was playing in Philly. Long story short, it was a transaction which was supposed to take place on the day of the NY show, but due to a screw up on Fed Ex’s part, Joe needed some help getting the 80 pound boxes across state lines, and I had always wanted to see what the city was like (and maybe get a famed Philly cheese-steak). Plus, I was hoping to get a chance to perhaps meet and chat with the band members, but when we got there they were too wrapped up getting prepped for their gig. The city was less than impressive (though Joe already told me this way in advance), we didn’t get any cheese-steaks, but I discovered that Joe really knows his Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, so getting the chance to spout off lines from the classic made the whole trip worth it.
By the time I got home, I was dead tired from the past few days and decided to just stay in (I did have tentative plans to go to the parade with John and Marion). I was worried for a bit since I had no candy on hand, but it was a moot point since no trick or treaters every showed up. I went out for Chinese for dinner and noticed a bunch of kids going into various take out joints and delis to trick or treat, which I guess is a popular thing to do in the Manhattan. I dunno… I guess I see the reasoning, but have kids just coming up to businesses instead of trying to “scare” people in their homes not only seems totally devoid of any fun, but it really does seem like blatant begging for candy. After dinner, I learned that the Charlie Brown classic, the Great Pumpkin, was not airing anywhere, so I decided to take a nap at 8 p.m. and promptly slept for the next 12 hours.
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And finally, some quick game related bit & pieces…
… I finally did get some games at the tail end of the massive Toys R Us 2 for 1 sale. Due to my limited finances, I didn’t get the seventy odd titles like I planned on, so I just got the very baseline two for one. And yes, I ended up buying games I already owned many times before.
First off was the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection, which has two game modes. The 15th Anniversary mode was fun for about 2 minutes until Ithe cheap-ass AI became too much to deal with. I’ve heard from various sources that the PS2 version of Third Strike is closer to the arcade than the Dreamcast iteration, but I honestly can’t tell any differences. Oh, and the PlayStation still sucks ass for 2D fighters. It took almost no time for me to regret not picking up the Xbox version.
Second was the Mega Man Anniversary Collection. I know it’s going to sound super retarded for me to bitch about a game which I knew well in advance had tons of technical issues, but I’m still appalled at the top to bottom shittiness of the whole package. Just looking at the lame ass CGI Gutsman gave me a migraine. And the first time I tried dealing menu navigation, and saw Mega Man run with a stutter, almost made me cry. Plus at the exact moment, my controller started acting all wonky and button inputs became messed up. But since my controller had never exhibited any problems, I thought it was the game, and then I was really pissed.
The third, and free, game was Sonic Heroes, which is a title that I’ve heard from all over the place sucked, but since it resembles the Sonic/Shadow portions of the Sonic Adventure 2 (the only good parts of the game actually) I just had to get it. I put the least amount of time in that one, so the jury’s still out…
…. Check this out. It’s Grand Theft Auto 3 for the NES. The degree of faithfulness in the recreation is almost frightening. I never liked the series, but I hope the ROM is release for the world to enjoy. Before the inevitable cease and desist order of course…
… I just discovered that Comix Zone, a great little side-scroller which came out of the Genesis, but I missed out on, came out for the GBA, but only in Europe. I might be scoping this one down…
… On the same tip, I finally got info on how to order that Japanese Mega Drive book thanks to Brandon, who actually helped me order wordimagesoundplay from Amazon Japan. And it’s like only $30!
… I also came across info on a Tetris super-play tape that’s on sale via Yahoo Auctions in Japan at the Insert Credit forums. When someone suggested that the tape be purchased by the Internet Archive so it can be shared with the public, I brought up how I write for the site and will pass it by the admin, and was then given a link by some guy to an insane vid of his own skills with the promise of more…
… And finally, did ya hear about Nintendo trying to sue Suicide Girls a hard time? Well, here it is, from beginning to end. Nothing beats reading a bunch punk/emo chicks that pose naked talk bitch about game company and systems like your average IGN hugging gamer.
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Did I forget anything? Oh yeah…. today’s election day. Since I really don’t like to talk too much about politics, plus this entry’s way too long anyways, I’ll just refer to what I wrote here.
But I will repeat one thing, which is my favorite slogan from the campaign thus far: “A Vote For Nader… Is A Vote For Nader.”
Alright, enough from me… I gotta go and vote.
