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When I started Picyaune 4.0 back in July of 2005, the goal was to continue the magazine-letter-like style with the rapidity of a blog page since using straight HTML pages in version 3.0 [from 1998-2005] was too slow. I was behind the curve obviously, the Weblog craze had started much earlier in the 21st century but I avoided that route due to the confessional, whiney, axe-grinding, diary-ish nature of most people's blogs. Sure I've stumbled here and there with some cheap shots at the Republicans [they've made it pretty easy for the last eight years] and some mistakes [I think I fess up to them]. Hopefully, you've enjoyed it. From the silence or lack of comments, I'll have to take it as a "yes."
Lately, I haven't been writing or posting much and I feel that I owe you all an explanation. Back in July, I had a pretty ugly, crippling anxiety-depression attack. It was almost as bad as the one I had after the election in 2004. Not exactly a proud moment in my life nor do I want to dwell on it as if I were writing my own [fake or not] confessional version of A Million Little Pieces. I just wanted to let everyone know I'm doing better, I found a doctor a while back and started some treatment to keep the worrying down. This guy specializes in people in my line of work too. Later on I will be getting back with the other person who helped pull me through in 2004-5, she's awesome. It's going to be OK. Somara has [and still is] been very supportive. One of her jobs is to make sure I get off my behind to follow through on the matters I need to tackle, namely some tests the doctor wants me to finish.
Thanks again for your support over the years. I think I will keep Picayune in low gear until I am seriously motivated and not compelled to write. It isn't much fun when it feels like an obligation or part-time job. A ton of good historical stories are probably going to slip through, they'll get another shot in 5 years should I still be doing this. Feh, why use all the A-list stuff right away I guess.
Trust me, the situation was never anything on par with Owen Wilson yet somedays it felt as scary.
Fred LeBlanc demonstrating how he can play drums and sing circles around Phil Collins or Don Henley in their salad daysMost of you who don’t live in the Louisana-Texas area are probably going “Who?” at the mention of this band. Maybe your memory would be jogged over their one big, national hit “Jenny Says” from 1996-7 which got them on MTV and airplay. They never really went away, especially around here since New Orleans has some cultural ties to Austin, they’re both cities with reputations for having a good time.
Cowboy Mouth played at Antone’s this time which I think is much more appropriate setting for them. I finally saw them in 2003 at Stubb’s [outdoors] which is the only decent outside venue in Austin but it doesn’t work for reasons I’ll explain later. Anyway, last night was my first time at Antone’s in its current downtown location, I used to go in the Nineties when it was near my apartment on Guadalupe. The building is a tad odd with everything be laid out “horizontally” in a building that is rather “deep.” Maybe Clifford wanted a larger stage for the performers. I think I will be shooting to go more often after seeing how the layout is. Again, for my out-of-Austin friends, Antone’s is considered the Blues place of the region and it’s where Stevie Ray Vaughn [amongst others] got his break, I’ll explain more in an Austintatious story in the near future.
The band [Fred, Vance, John-Thomas & Regina] hit the stage at 1030 PM. Then it was an aerobic marathon of jumping, screaming and clapping because those are the ground rules laid out by Fred at the beginning. Thus, a Cowboy Mouth show isn’t for anyone who likes to enjoy a concert passively. Believe me, I gave it my all since I was in the front row, right in front of bassist Regina and in Fred’s line of sight. I’m still hoarse plus I will be logging this as activity on my Wii Fit [I just didn’t this morning due to the batteries being low]. Oh, yes, I did have a great time and Somara even more, they’re one of her favorites.
Last night’s set consisted of several songs from their upcoming album Fearless which will be appearing near the end of September, you know I’ll be buying it ASAP at Waterloo Records. The rest were past singles out of the band’s past catalog of records: Are You With Me?, Mercyland, Easy, Uh-Oh and the more recent, post-Katrina release Voodoo Shoppe. For the encore, they kicked off with an Otis Redding song, rather fitting and appropriate given where we were.
Neil Finn circa 1998 at La Zona RosaDrat! I realized that I missed his 50th birthday while "researching" this story. Maybe if Neil wrote a song like his brother's "Haul Away," I could remember it better. All the Split Enz fans know what I'm talking about.
Tonight I'm off to see Cowboy Mouth for the second time but ten years ago, I FINALLY got to see Neil Finn perform. Most of you know I've been a huge fan of Neil's work ever since I stumbled upon Corroboree in 1985; actually I was trying to find True Colours but settled for this because Apple Tree Records had it in stock.
By the time I "discovered" Split Enz, they were no more. Then during the summer of 1986, I was watching MTV's new music Monday show [back when it still aired music videos] and noticed this one starting up with a singer who "resembled" Neil. After drummer Paul Hester [also from Split Enz] appeared, I realized that Crowded House was Neil's new act. While I was too young to see Split Enz [they played a 21+ venue in Houston during my time there], I was cursed to never see the House. I'm not kidding about the mathematical odds against me with them. Both times the trio came to Philly, I had to return to Marquette. I missed them by a week due to the timing of Spring Break and I had no chance for their bigger, better show at Philly's Tower Theater; even if I flew back, my parents had moved to San Diego.
At other times, CH was the opening act for rather dull stuff in Chicago and they never came to Milwaukee. Until I accepted the position with GDW…arrgh! To add insult to injury, they were performing at my alma mater, one of the most musically conservative campuses on Earth. Trust me, the bulk of the student body would go ape over a Classic Rock has been before showing a peep of interest in a contemporary act. Much like the Peter Murphy, 10,000 Maniacs and Mission UK shows, I'm confident the bulk of the seats were filled by non-Marquette students.
In 1994, they came to Austin on what would become their final tour [obviously it wasn't, Neil reformed the band in 2006]. I was already resigned to not going as soon as I saw the venue listed in the AusChron, the Backyard. Besides, why throw away a losing streak? Course I still kicked myself when Neil announced the end of Crowded House in 1996 and the farewell tour would be restricted to the countries they were big in; obviously America was skipped.
Two years later, Neil's first solo album appeared. Predictably I bought Try Whistling This the week it debuted in North Carolina. At first I was disappointed but I kept listening to it remembering how I felt the same way with Woodface and Time & Tide. My hopes of a US tour did come true but I would miss him in Raleigh and Austin would be cutting it close; 10 days after I returned. I asked my future roommate to get me a ticket before I arrived because I feared a sold-out show; the venue was small. Little did I know, Mel didn't do what I asked until my first weekend in town which made me very lucky, it was booked solid the day I went.
I got to La Zona Rosa early since I wanted to be really close. While waiting I ran into Chip [if you don't recognize him, he's the guy at Waterloo Records who keeps yours truly stocked in cool imported music]. We caught up over the last year and then he had to split to talk to someone with Sony [Neil's US label]. Later on, I met two ladies in line who went on to become new friends for my return to Austin: Mary and Jessica. Mary was a huge fan, Jessica [her daughter] was cool with Neil despite being more into the boy bands of the day. I bumped into them again three months later when Neil did a special, 12-city only encore tour and we have kept in touch ever since.
Austin's very own Shawn Colvin has been a friend of Neil's for years.
Shawn frequently covers "Private Universe" at her shows.As for the concert, it was fantastic and my pictures never really do it justice. Neil's live performance was so impressive, he definitely changed my opinion of his album, it went on to be my favorite of 1998, beating out Garbage's Version 2.0 and BNL's Stunt. He mainly performed his solo material but sprinkled the show with his hits from Split Enz ["I Got You," "One Step Ahead," and "Message to My Girl"], Crowded House ["Don't Dream it's Over," "Better be Home Soon," and "Something So Strong"] and the Finn Brothers ["Suffer Never" with a rare demo of his guitar prowess]. The biggest surprise was him singing "Spellbound." Why? It's a tune originally sung by Phil Judd when Neil wasn't even a member. He does make the song his own, so well I wish he'd release a legal, recorded version.
Definitely a memorable evening on numerous levels. I did finally get my 15 seconds with him several months later plus an autograph. Maybe in the near future I will get to speak to Neil at greater length to personally thank him for years of enjoyment. This show is getting dusted off and posted too because it's one of the five on my Rock Band profile.
Due to the slowness of Summer, I forget to check my link to the Philly newspaper every day to see what's the skinny on the Flyers. To my horror, there was a piece Wednesday talking about my team being one of the six in the running for Mats Sundin. No thanks. We have two very expensive Quebeckers for offense and the last time we took in an overpriced, past-his-prime, has-been Swedish star, we had two really awful seasons [horrible and humiliating too] plus Floppa sat out for over a third of the games because of ongoing "injuries."
I wish Sundin luck in finding a new team, just not Philly. My Flyers need to stick with younger, faster forwards and solving their defensive problems caused by the loss of Primeau and Desjardins. If he were five years younger, then maybe. I'll stick with Briere plus he should be the new Captain since Smith left.
Two things are in my favor of them not signing him: the annoying salary cap and Holmgren proving that he's nothing like Clarke, phew!
 My new litmus test on humor arrived over the weekend. I wore it in public where it yielded about a 50 percent success rate on strangers and friends "getting the joke." Most usually laughed yet they said they couldn't explain why.
Who cares though. The artist did a great job getting the zebra into a pose that's anatomically impossible for equids to hold yet making it appear realistic. It only works with zebras too. I don't feel it would be funny if it were a horse or donkey doing this.
Somara's funny shirt from Torsopants.com will appear later.
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The Alamo people setting up the projector and screen on the rink.This Alamo-based event probably wasn’t the most original or daring, compared to screening Close Encounters of the Third Kind at Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, but hey, I’ll take this one since I could actually attend it. The NHL will be starting up another season in two months so what better way to get fired up than with one of the best sports movies ever made. Even if you don’t like hockey, Slapshot is a solid comedy focusing on the players’ lives and interactions off the rink.
The turnout was pretty good for Central Texas. I was more thrilled over my friend Brian coming with a pair of friends. As you recall, Brian is a huge Red Wings fan and also played in the minor leagues when he was younger. We were all dressed appropriately for the event in our Chiefs jerseys. Brian and his friend had autographed home versions with all three of the infamous Hanson brothers! I can only hope to meet the trio who inspired the movie. We sat up in the “balcony” to enjoy saying some of our favorite quotes aloud. Normally I’m against magpies but this was a pseudo Quote-a-long event. I know I impressed Brian’s friend with my Eddie Shore rebuttal timing.
I hadn’t been to Chaparral Ice since the Bats won their last home playoff game. It was sad to see the place now. Oh, the rink is in great shape just all the seats behind the goal and near the team benches are gone. The people who own the place don’t need them anymore because the only teams playing will be UT [yes, Texas has a team, it’s just not in the NCAA divisions] and the clubs: aka the Roadrunners and Iceholes. All those memories, especially the 13-round shootout which had me on the edge of my seat. Now I have to jones through a season without anything resembling professional hockey in Austin until the overpriced AHL proxy for the Dallas Stars comes to Cedar Park. I probably should start saving up to make one run to San Antonio to enjoy a Rampage game when Milwaukee, Chicago or Peoria come to town.
 This lovely collection was left at the doorstep of my house. How awesome after a rather trying yet boring day at work. It was also soothing to receive because I was a tad stressed to get somewhere else on time that evening.
It was so nice I wanted to share this with everyone. You can’t smell them but seeing them is next best thing.
“Two” is a great title and fitting. No one really recalls the Apple I but a few still exist. Now the Apple II went on to be foundation of the “little” computer company that could and continues to irritate the Windows and Linux faithful.
I think there are only three others who remain from my original training class which is probably unusual for Apple. One is more involved with the retail division and another went to operations [similar to IT]. When I met the majority of them, I felt they were pretty sharp people and quite personable. As always, there was one guy who was a nuisance and thankfully, it wasn’t me this time. Seriously though, I don’t know why he chose to work at Apple with all his PC-Windows knowledge. It didn’t help his case when he’d bash the product in front of the instructors. Matters worked themselves out eventually.
The one remaining guy from that training class who didn’t transfer is part of a different faction of my team. I mentioned the anniversary to him the other day. John remembered it pretty readily too! We need to go have a celebratory lunch for being so tenacious.
Our return to Houston to finish out the Summer was short lived. After the stressful yet eye-opening month in Springfield, the tropical depression in the Gulf [of Mexico] had become Hurricane Alicia and it was headed for the Houston-Galveston area. Being a Midwesterner, all I knew was what I had seen on the news and disaster movies…the extreme highlights: flooding, rubble, thousands of people drowning, etc. Naturally, I freaked out since I had this recurring thought of Grandma seeing our corpses lying face down in a cesspool on CNN. Dad didn't seemed worried. I think his co-workers had told him all about their experiences with Houston's past storms. This didn't assuage me. The region’s last serious hurricane was Carla back in 1961. To me, this meant very few really remembered what to expect after 20 years of near misses such as Danielle. Mom seemed to share my fear because she convinced my father to let us [Mom, Brian and me] load up the newer car and head farther north where the hurricane would be less dangerous. Dad chose to stay behind in case of looters…I guess. We lived in the suburbs so this was unlikely, even in a city as violent as Houston. Before leaving, I packed up everything in my room, then sealed the boxes with plastic bags and stored them all on shelves that were at least four feet high. I was prepared for the house being flooded. Seems rather ridiculous to do if your life is at stake. The drive north was tense. It wasn't from everybody's nerves being frayed over the pending disaster; this would be understandable. Sadly, Alicia reinvigorated all the recent friction we were having during the previous month in Springfield. Thus our "evacuation" was a continuation of all the unfinished arguments my mother probably wanted to have the final say about [a trait she denies sharing with her mother]. I personally think most of the fighting was the "normal" parental-teenager stuff everybody lives through with a dose of the usual angst 15 year olds have. We kept going north on I-45 until we felt were safe enough and/or the strain had reached a tipping point, Madisonville. [For years I always thought it was Madison, like the capital of Wisconsin.] Mom scored a hotel room and we hunkered down anticipating the worst from every angle. Just in time too. When the sun set, the wind really picked up as Alicia made its presence felt 200 miles away. The only two strong memories I had of passing the time were my Traveller books and watching The Exorcist on CBS. Those SciFi novels my dad gave me in May provided some inspiration on trying to piece together a more coherent campaign thanks to Traveller having a rather dry, unimaginative set of rules. Besides, doodling ideas is a frequent habit of gamers, especially the GMs. Meanwhile, I clearly remembered what was on TV vividly because the horror movie provided an unusual catharsis. A flick about someone being possessed by the devil is little comfort during a natural disaster, especially for me. I already disliked the genre, it would only heighten my anxiety. On the other hand, there was nothing else on. But when the girl projectile vomited on the young priest, I was “possessed” with a fit of laughter which lasted a few minutes. I know it made me feel much better, enough to sleep through the bulk of Alicia. Too bad it didn’t have the same effect on Brian and Mom. With the coast being clear, we returned to Houston. The rain was thick yet it wasn’t anything we hadn’t seen before in Midwestern thunderstorms. We didn’t see any signs of devastation to the city which was a huge relief. The house looked great, it only lost a few shingles. There was no electricity though. This resulted in Brian and me arguing over who got to use the battery-powered FM radio until HL&P restored juice to the neighborhood two days later. The nastier surprise was using the community pool. Either its heater was out or all the rain water Alicia provided made it feel colder than Lake Springfield. Thankfully it remained less polluted. With it all over, I then used to feel embarrassed about my first and only hurricane experience. Alicia did a slew of damage yet it wasn’t Andrew or Katrina, it was just an amped up thunderstorm. Other than it postponing school a week, it didn’t have any long-term effect on my family. We would’ve been better off staying home like the neighbors did instead of panicking like rubes. When classmates at Clear Creek told their stories in Mrs. Lacy’s Latin class, I felt even dumber. Eventually, this passed and by the time we moved back to the Midwest and eventually North Dakota, I recall Alicia being quite the conversation piece. Epilogue: Somara’s final days in Houston were during Hurricane Alicia. I think she will post her memories in either the comments or on her own page. Hopefully other past and present residents I personally know will do the same: Sonia, Sheila, Mark B, Tom and Jeremy readily come to mind. For more details, Wikipedia had an author[s] do a great job on it.
I realized this week that minor league baseball has made me a baseball snob. I’m leaving for a short trip to Houston this weekend and since the Astros are in town, my thoughts turned to snatching a couple of tickets and catching a game. In the end, I gave up on seeing the Astros and elected to end my trip a little short and hurry back home to catch a Triple A game in Round Rock instead.
My season tickets for the Round Rock Express are in Section 113, Row 2. That’s about 20 feet behind third base, just off the end of the third base dugout. We’re so close to the action that we can hear the umps make the call, we can hear the players calling “I got it!” on pops, and we can hear the coaches when they come out to yell at the umps. We’re not just there to see the game, we’re in the game.
Damned near the best seats in the house and face value is $12 a seat.
The comparable section at Minute Maid Park in Houston runs $50 a seat, and you’ll never get anything closer than about 30th row unless you go to Stubhub. There, you’ll spend between $70 and $120.
That’s when I realized I’d just drive home and catch an Express game. Minimum $140 for two decent seats (not even counting concessions!) and see my favorite major league team, or sit second row, third base, at AAA in a cozy, friendly stadium with sane concession prices?
Not a tough choice.
Escape from North Carolina concluded today and so began Austin Two which celebrates its 10th year. I may have been several thousand bucks in the hole to return [$1300 to break the lease, $400 on new tires] but my quality of life was more important. Eventually I would climb out, it just took three years due to roommate problems, a medical debt and the joys snotty letters from the IRS; sadly, the latter hasn't changed because they're six weeks late on our Economic Hail Mary.
While my car was getting a new set of tires, I took in the scenery known as Georgetown. Turned out to be the same I-35 exit Somara's family lives off of, yet another incident of us crossing paths in the future! In my three previous years of living in Austin, I never made it up there much yet it's the closet thing to encountering real King of the Hill types of people.
Anyway, Austin Two with its numerous sub-projects could begin: pay off all the debts accrued in the trip; meet some women; get a permanent job; see more live shows; and finally the one my friend Kris put me up to, buy a house.
On to the next ten years!
 The final phase of Escape from North Carolina was now underway. With the other two legs completed: the drive from NC to IL, GenCon 31; I left Steve & Patty’s house in great spirits and easily made Memphis by dinner time. The drive was a bit hectic due to the rather intense rain that started around St. Louis. By West Memphis [it’s in Arkansas], the weather was mild so I kicked back at the Motel 6, watched some lousy HBO programming and ate Waffle House for dinner. To celebrate what I considered the half-way point of any drive from the Rust Belt to Austin, I had to pay my respects to the King. I stopped there four years earlier so I figured it would be a great tradition or an attempt to recapture the magic I felt over moving to Austin.
Knowing how long the drive from Memphis to Austin was [unlike in 1994], I chose to spend the $20 on the entire package: the cars, the planes and the more personal articles. It was really cool to see more than the house because the latter stuff put Elvis and his family into a better context on who they were. The standard sample of how much fan mail he received was rather amazing. I lucked out on getting there after the anniversary of his death so it wasn’t packed or crazy. However, most of the fuss was over his 1968 Comeback Special turning 30.
I’ll save all the details about Graceland for another time, namely when I want to reminisce about 1994 or Somara’s first visit in 1999.
With the tours wrapped up, I sent my obligatory post cards and I can’t recall if I bothered with a friend peanut butter and banana sandwich; they don’t serve it exactly the way Elvis liked it because most people find mayo in it gross. I did buy the special soda mug. The King appears on the side if you pour a cold drink in it.
Then the road had to be heeded as I easily crossed Arkansas and into Texas by early evening. Texarkana to Dallas was the dull stretch I always remembered but I knew I was going to be in Austin before midnight while I driving on I-635 at sunset.
Stupidity, stubbornness and impatience got the best of me in Big D.
I accidently got off I-635 too soon for I-45 South instead of waiting to take the I-35E exit miles later. Originally I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal, there’d be something to take me over. What I should’ve done was turn around, eat the loss of time and gas since the certainty of where the Interstates go would’ve be the prudent thing. Instead, I tried to take the lesser roads West in anticipation of stumbling upon I-35. For some odd reasons, the smaller communities south of Dallas don’t like to post signs telling you how far away the major roads are neither.
Being lost soon became the least of my worries. On the outskirts of Ferris, I hit a 90 degree turn too quickly. Oh, I managed to get my VW Golf oriented in the correct direction but the car’s 2600 pounds [2.4 metric tonnes] of momentum continued to pull right into a ditch. I was very fortunate that I didn’t roll the car. What I was now dealing with was a flat tire and humiliation. Two nice people helped me out so I wasn’t stranded for long. The “fun” pas became driving no faster than 45 mph [72 kph] on my Golf’s donut tire from Ferris all the way to Georgetown. I wasn’t able to call Mel, my future roommate, what happened nor where I was until I fond a pay phone off I-35 and my adrenalin levels were down.
I arrived at the Georgetown apartment around 2-3 AM. Thankfully Mel was nice enough to stay up to let me in despite having work at Apple in the morning. I don’t think I bother to unload my car, I figured it could wait until I had unwound and slept.
The next morning I realized how lucky I was. One tire was immediately destroyed in the accident. Another turned out to be slowly leaking. It just managed to hold out for several hundred miles before giving out in the parking lot. Then my charmed-life theory pulled through. Mel’s place was only a couple blocks from a Lamb’s Tire. My hobbled VW easily made it down there for a day of getting four new tires; two flats and two that were balder than Captain Picard. I had barely been back in Austin for a day and I was already down $400.
Matters were looking up after the new set of tires: I had to sign the final paperwork with Adecco and Apple’s new iMac would be in customers’ hands in the next couple days. Besides, I was back in Austin, where I wanted to be.
Epilogue: Those dents remain in my car and are reminders to drive it through the path of least resistance; meaning, stick to the main roads when in doubt and under the speed limit.
Still digging out on your e-mails, corporate e-mails [ahh, Sallie Mae and the joys of their Bangalore call center] and I will get to you all. I totally forgot what a heck of a month August would be regarding 1998 [return to Austin], 1988 [my first Summer in Milwaukee] and 1983 [a frantic Summer that never let up until school]. Normally, it's a slow month, even most of Europe is on reduced hours.
Of course that hasn't stopped me from tinkering with my new toy…I mean tool, aka the iPhone. I learned from my friend Jeremy how to create ringtones via Garage Band. I already loved the application, just have been neglecting over the last couple years because I haven't had the time to make a new "song." However, making a ringtone is easier than falling off a log, or should it be a balance beam due to the Olympics being on TV right now?
So here's the deal. If you have a particular song [or sound effect] which you think represents you, tell me. You can e-mail it to me at my last name at me dot com [spelling it out like this prevents robots from spamming me]. Braver people can post theirs in the Comments section to share with others. Otherwise, I will pick out something that comes to my mind or flawed memories. Oh, and if you have a favorite picture or symbol helps; trust me, the iPhone does do the "thing with the picture" like the commercials.
Currently Somara's is Wolfmother's "Woman." I may change it eventually, it was something I wanted to use for a while back but the beta software I tried in the past never worked.
Jose has "Dude" by Owsley for old time's sake.
Nelson has a Star Trek sound effect because he is the biggest fan of the series I know. Mind you, he has a life. He may resemble Robert Picardo but he isn't a Trekkie who'd go around in public wearing a Starfleet uniform or rubber ears.
I excitedly await your selections…and Helen, you're my next "victim" for a ringtone.
 Another confectionary success for Somara! Definitely a comeback too. Matters didn't go very smoothly last week for a different wedding cake but I don't want to go into that. I will leave it up to Somara to explain if she wishes.
Anyway, I helped transport these cakes because they were very, very important. Both were for a pair of co-workers getting married [to each other] and I wanted this matter to be the least of their worries. It didn’t help that the bride and I had joked about this scene from Rodney Dangerfield’s Easy Money in the last year.
Somara was flattered they chose her for their big day too. Showing off her fancier work of D&D books and providing a birthday cake at a birthday we all attended helped. Since Somara’s former work is well liked, the couple requested the special one resembling the living starship Moya from Farscape
Moya is the oddest shaped cake I’ve seen Somara make.If you’re like me, you’re probably not too familiar with this Australian Muppets in Space show so click here to see the resemblance. I think Moya is supposed to be a space whale but she looks more like a giant trilobite.
Our fingers are crossed over the reception’s attendees enjoying the cakes. I did receive some indirect news from someone who said they were positive comments, yet he refused to eat any.
 This year GenCon turns 40 [just like me]. But 10 and 20 years ago I attended for the first and last time respectively. August 6th [Wednesday] was the tenth anniversary of my last convention but my iPhone prevented me from completing this post in a timely manner. However, according to Wikipedia, GenCon 21 [1988] began on August 18 so I'll just say I'm early for the 20th anniversary!
On my first time, I totally forgot it was happening in 1988. My new friend Neal was going and we even discussed it at great length days before. Heck, when I was first getting into D&D as a kid, GenCon seemed to be this Holy Grail of gaming I never thought I would ever see unless I won the lottery. Back in North Dakota, my high school friends even razzed me over choosing Marquette because the event had moved to Milwaukee in 1985.
Despite Neal getting me back into gaming through his RoleMaster campaign over the Summer, WMUR and surviving until school started took precedence. Then I stumbled upon the festivities while killing some time downtown. It looked too interesting to pass up. I rushed to the ATM, bought a one-day visitor badge and took a tour of the whole thing. Definitely a Nerdvana on numerous levels because it wasn't exclusively about roleplaying games like D&D. There were costumes, movies, collectables, computers, videogames…think of it as a comic book or Star Trek convention with much more to do than shop. The primary purpose of GenCon is to play in tournaments, test new games on a random audience and meet gamers from around the world. After taking it all in, I thought to myself, if I'm living in Milwaukee next Summer, I am so going to this.
And so I did from 1989 through 1993 and each GenCon contains strong memories.
1989 was disillusionment. I naively thought that GenCon attracted some of the best players around. HA! College and Neal’s game had erased my memory on how RPGs [roleplaying games] are a magnet for the socially retarded. Two doofuses completely ruined the superhero game I was in with their Min-Maxed [a form of cheating] characters. The silver lining was Mayfair Games' preview of their revised DC [Comics] Heroes. I was impressed and couldn't wait to buy it in the Fall.
I fared better in 1990 by learning how to score a free badge as an RPGA [like a D&D league] judge for the DC Heroes game. My adjusted expectations over the other players' behavior helped and guided my event selections. Participating in TSR's marketing survey was a surprise; I think I was selected to represent the deodorant-using segment.
1991 had the impromptu job interview with GDW. Making Steve B's acquaintance was the better memory. When I got him to tell me all about GDW’s use of Macs to lay out its publications, he showed his enthusiasm. He had been subjected to hours of nerds droning on and on about their D&D characters. I also played in a DC Heroes event with my future Central IL roommate Greg. Running into ND high-school chum Jon bordered on miraculous yet we failed to keep in touch afterwards as I was hoping for a renewal of our friendship.
1992 was covered thoroughly here.
Going in 1993 was a mistake. The wounds from GDW were still to raw to really enjoy playing and socializing. I didn't find much solace in my former employer’s dire state thanks to Gygax’s Mythus tanking and the poor reception Traveller: The New Era received. The avoidance I was getting from my TSR contact over the freelance assignment Knowing that I did poorly on it foreshadowed our next conversation being unpleasant. Had I known how much leeway TSR allowed on editing, I could've done better. Then again, I probably would not since I was trying to juggle the work, my boring DG job and having to move back in with Grandma all at the same time. A sour time I should’ve stayed away from and saved myself a couple hundred bucks.
One hilarious thing at the 1993 convention was the debut of a little game called Magic: The Gathering. I didn't think much of it because a dinky company called Wizards of the Coast published it. Their track record until then wasn’t impressive so no one predicted what would happen. Had I known that Lisa Stevens [she made Vampire a hit in 1991] was involved with Wizards, I would've bought stock with money borrowed from my grandmother! By the Fall of 1993, Magic cards became the crack epidemic of my local hobby store. The rest is history.
Relocating to Austin prevented me from extending the streak to six years. I kept telling Doc I had tentative plans for it in 1994. Too bad I lacked the money let alone the vacation time. The window to go passed and I never had any serious interest in going any longer. My short-lived D&D campaign with Doc being indefinitely shelved contributed to gaming getting mothballed in my life too. Never mind all the closet space occupied by a half-dozen boxes of the junk.
By a stroke of luck, I got to see what turned out to be my last GenCon in 1998 instead.
Originally when I left North Carolina, the plan was to go straight to Austin and loaf around the apartment I would be sharing with Mel. Steve convinced me to take the detour through the Midwest for GenCon instead. As an artist, he was granted two exhibitor badges, one for him and another for anyone he chose. I took him up on it which made my trek back to Austin a mini-vacation. Plus it was a $50 bargain!
1998 was a GenCon shrouded in gloom. Many of the publishers were on the ropes [FASA] or had collapsed [WEG, TSR]. The blame was placed on computer/console versions of RPGs and the aftermath of too many collectible card games; after Magic, there were dozens of those boring things. Wizards of the Coast being D&D's savior in 1997 "didn't seem to matter" was a frequent litany from Wizards’ critics, namely a former WEG trying to woo the Star Wars license away. I wasn't concerned. I knew gaming would live on, it just wouldn't be as successful like the early Eighties, electronics had closed the gap and solved two major problems: “remembering” all the rules and others to play with.
The non-gaming elements were awesome. Star Trek's John DeLancie, Robert Picardo and Jeri Ryan were there. Four people from the original Lost in Space too; I had a great time meeting Mark Goddard [the original Major Don West]. I also got an autographed picture of Claudia Christian from Babylon 5 for myself and a friend I’d be seeing at Apple in a week.
Outside the convention, in the real world, I visited Nelson and Tammy one evening and my cousin Leesa with her husband Joe on another but now they had kids! Alex and Sara. I saw old friends too: Phil and Lazz namely. I completely missed seeing my sensei Lester; not to worry, he’ll be visiting Austin in mid September. Now if Lazz would call me or write me, I’d be thrilled.
I always spent way too much money at these things yet I had a great time geeking out. All the memories of re-encountering “missing” friends or making new ones made it worth more than any of the tournaments I won or placed in. GenCon was an effective way to recharge my depleted batteries before I dove back into school and it did the same thing for me on the madness Austin would turn into.
Oddly, my wife still wants to see this thing. I thought Somara would take my “war stories” as a warning to avoid this rather pricey trip to play D&D with some other town’s annoying monty haulers, power gamers and socially inept. Then again, she has been to at least several SciFi conventions. If it were still in Milwaukee, I’d probably budget a vacation there. Unfortunately, the company which now owns GenCon [Hasbro toys sold off the rights] is in some kind of re-organizational bankruptcy and it now happens in India-no-place, a city with nothing else to do or see when the convention is closed. My friends Flynn and Leslee going every Summer aren’t helping me make my case against going. One day we probably will go, Vegas just takes precedence this year.
 It has been a long, long couple of days but my patience paid off. I haven’t been obsessing over it though, I just haven’t posted because other crises had to be tackled, namely Somara’s big two wedding cakes due today; they came out successfully and intact.
The inagural first call on my new iPhone went to Steve, mainly to congratulate him on his new career as a full-time comic book artist! We caught up some things and while he was at the big show in San Diego, he met the owner of Austin’s very own Dragon’s Lair who invited him to town. Somara and I have been trying to bring him to our neck of the woods for a while.
How is the phone? I like it much better than the first model but I haven’t really used the 3G element yet. That technology drains the battery faster than EDGE or finding a Wi-Fi portal. I just like the option of speed should it be necessary such as getting directions or an answer to end an argument.
The shakedown cruise with it will take a while as I figure out how to streamline my contacts; weed out the people I don’t call.
 Oh well, it could've been worse such as the iPhone being shattered into a dozen pieces right after the box was opened. The guy at the AT&T Store did the best he could with what he had so I wasn't upset with him; better having a live person for the interaction than a remote callmill in Bangalore.
Now I get to spend a chunk of my evening at the nearest Apple Store to have a Genius look it over, install what the factory failed to do and then test it out. Certainly faster than requesting a replacement but I've waited well over a year to replace my aging Sony Ericsson, another couple days won't kill me. The whole mess did wear me out to the point that I was too exhausted to finish my well-timed GenCon stories. Like I had any energy left over from the stress of work; it's back-to-school time so the phone is ringing off the hook.
Hopefully the Genius will have more luck than the AT&T guy, otherwise, I might just stick with my Sony Ericsson and pay the $10 to upgrade my iPod Touch instead.
 Quick disclosure on this review. Pixar's head guy is Steve Jobs who is also the CEO of Apple, my employer yet it never influences my decision to like the movie.
Pixar took a huge gamble with this different storytelling approach and integrating some live-action sequences. I'm not talking about the "environmental" angle Conservatives have been primarily attacking [yet they praised the imaginary Randroid litany of The Incredibles]. It's the risk they took on the lack of verbal communication between the main robots; they converse through gestures and sound bites. Most people would be bored, especially children, after 10 minutes of this. Personally, I loved it and everyone else who saw it agreed.
In the distant future [700-800 years from now], a lonely Waste Allocation Lift Loader, Earth-Class-robot [WALL-E] roams around the polluted ruins of an unknown city, collecting and compacting garbage. Its refuse cubes are organized into stacks alongside the numerous, abandoned skyscrapers; from a distance, it's hard to tell that some of these aren't buildings while viewing the skyline. WALL-E appears to be the last operational one as you don't see any other functional ones carrying out the same Sisyphean task. The centuries of solitude have led to him [really an it] developing a personality: he collects and classifies certain found trinkets; he has decorated his storage station; and he has a fondness for the movie Hello Dolly. The latter watching habit exhibits his loneliness. As for humanity, they all bailed centuries ago to "wait-it-out" in deep space until Earth became habitable again.
So WALL-E goes through his daily routine until a starship lands near the ruins and leaves a probe. This probe turns out to be a more sophisticated Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator [EVE] robot. For the plot's sake, this robot is a she since WALL-E is instantly smitten by her and EVE demonstrates some traditional female traits in animation: higher voice, smaller fingers and more expressive eyes. From here on, it's a robot love story not a cautionary tale about abusing the planet such as Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax. If there’s any kind of warning or message about humanity’s decline, it bears a stronger resemblance to Idiocracy than An Inconvenient Truth.
Other than the robots communicating non-verbally most of the time, Pixar also did some additional things differently. The glaringly noticeable one was the use of live-action for the recordings of past messages left by the president of Wal-Mart surrogate Buy'n'Large [played by Fred Willard]. One would think that would be some of the easiest material to animate, why go with live action? This film is probably the smallest cast for Pixar too. Normally their movies have been ensembles from the beginning. Here, WALL-E has only four recurring human characters [namely good-luck charm Ratzenberger] and Sigourney Weaver as the starship’s computer.
They did a great job getting WALL-E to be genuinely expressive despite his resemblance to Johnny Five; I’d say he’s more related to R2-D2. Pixar made him endearing without being sickeningly sweet or annoying to the point he gives you tooth decay just from watching.
The short this time is Presto. It’s similar to last year’s Lifted but with the slapstick humor cranked to 11. Too bad the greats from Looney Tunes’ heyday, namely Chuck Jones, didn’t live to see this.
Worth Seeing?: Well, it’s been out for over a month so it might be a tad difficult since the number of theaters carrying has declined. Then again, if you haven’t seen it by now, it’s a solid Plan B while The Dark Knight is sold out at the local multiplex. I am looking forward to this one joining our DVD collection in the Fall.
Woo hoo! I actually got to hear my stream play this milestone song because I accidently "cheated" on making it happen. Yesterday, I took the Mini [which would also take Picayune and KMAG offline] offsite to be backed up before my friend Jeremy started stage one of installing Drupul. One can never be too careful when it comes to messing with MySQL, PHP and all that Open Source jazz. I support customers all day long who don't back up their servers. I know very well the consequences of no Plan B [or C & D].
Anyway, this took KMAG out of commission for nearly 12 hours; I didn't get home until 730 PM, followed by its weekly updating to the Onion News, Top 30 plus some odds and ends tunes I've "discovered" to add [Curse you Guitar Hero & Rock Band!]. When I saw how close it was, I had my MacBook set up to watch the stream's log in pseudo-real time. Based upon my math, I figured I had a good chance of hearing it when we wake up for exercising and work…and I did. As always, it wasn't anything in the "Top 30," currently Cut Copy, Ting Tings, Peter Gabriel and Dresden Dolls.
Drum roll please for song 800,000…
"Killed by Love" by The Pursuit of Happiness
Not bad. It's from their debut album which appeared 20 years ago and I did see them open for Duran Duran within that time frame.
Onward to 900,000 and a million!
This month’s ugly colors are sponsored by the current scheme for GenCon. Why? Because 20 years ago was when I attended it for the first time with a five-dollar, one-day, guest badge and then it became one of the highlights of my Summers in Milwaukee. After leaving Milwaukee, I only went three more times because it’s a real pain in the ass getting a hotel room and other matters involving it. Personally, I don’t think it’s the same ever since it moved to India-no-place because D&D is a big piece of Milwaukee and Wisconsin’s history yet it was their fault to let it leave.
Also, I wanted to give advance notice over at least one upcoming outage for Picayune. I will finally start making the changes for I guess what will become version 4.0 or maybe Volume VI? My friend Jeremy will be helping me install the pieces necessary for Drupul which will coexist with the Blojsom. Eventually, the goal is to “flip a switch” to have it all done through Drupul. Meanwhile, I need to back up the Mini in case something goes South. I decided to start now because most of Europe is on vacation in August, why not my website?
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