Richard Dansky's Blog, page 12
January 13, 2013
You Actually Think They're Going To Find Bigfoot?
So.
I dig Bigfoot. Have ever since I saw the Bigfoot episode of In Search Of. I've got a shelf full of books on cryptozoology. I've exchanged emails with Loren Coleman. I know who Jeff Meldrum is. I have promised to take two small boys "Bigfoot hunting" (read: walking around a local park with a camera) at earliest opportunity. I find the question of the possible existence of unknown large primates to be an interesting scientific issue. I know multiple people who claim to have seen Bigfoot or one of his near relations, and I find their stories interesting.
I also watch Finding Bigfoot.
I do not do this in hopes of seeing the cast of the show actually find a sasquatch. I know this will not happen. I know this because it is a television series, and thus its main goal is to ensure continued production. That means more episodes wherein our four noble squatchers go to various locations, talk to various people, and fail to find Bigfoot. Indeed, one might note that their methodology - short investigations with camera crews, sticking to roads, not putting up trailcams for extended surveys of a particular area, repeatedly yowling at each other to the point where no self-respecting sasquatch would be able to get a word in edgewise, setting off fireworks, hauling a baboon into the woods, and inviting sasquatches to a rave. The plan for next week's episode - apparently it's using a Girl Scout troop as bait - buries the needle on the Batshit-o-crazy meter, unless Bobo's right and sasquatches really love Thin Mints that goddamned much.
No, I watch it for entertainment value. I watch it for the goofy situations and the earnest believerhood of cast member Cliff and the puffed-up frothing of cast member Matt and the weary skepticism of cast member Ranae and the plain old whackadoodle of cast member Bobo. I watch it for folks trying to guess how tall something they think they saw in the dark three years prior might be, and I watch it for the sheer hilarity of watching Matt step all over his castmates in an effort to shore up his alpha male status. William Shatner used to line-count Star Trek scripts; Moneymaker line-counts sasquatch calls per episode, and nobody's allowed to howl like a wolverine gargling Top Job more than he is. And I find this hilarious, to the point where I live-tweet the show under the hashtag #FindingBigfoot, because, hey, it's a popular show and there are lots of other people out there doing the same, and social media signal amplification and all that good stuff. Honestly, most of the tweets are either from true believers or are in the same vein of gentle ribbing that I enjoy; there's about a half dozen fake Sasquatch accounts mixed in there for good measure.
But here and there, there's some folks mixed in who take things very seriously, and who are genuinely offended that the team has not yet delivered on the nonexistent promise to find Bigfoot. They are righteous, I tell you, and they are mad, and God dammit, they expect a scientific mystery decades old to be solved before the first commercial break, verifiable evidence be damned.
To which I say: God help you people, because you're missing the point. This is entertainment. The point is not to find Bigfoot. The point is to amuse us couch potatoes with the NVG-ed up misadventures of these sasquatch-hunting Beatles (Bobo = Ringo, fer sure) week after week with a formula. Real research into seriously attempting to find evidence of a large hominid loose on, say, the Olympic Peninsula would be lengthy. It would be expensive. It would be slow. It would be boring. And it would make for lousy television. Which, in the end, is what this show is. And that, vague rustlings in the distance aside, is all it needs to be.
I dig Bigfoot. Have ever since I saw the Bigfoot episode of In Search Of. I've got a shelf full of books on cryptozoology. I've exchanged emails with Loren Coleman. I know who Jeff Meldrum is. I have promised to take two small boys "Bigfoot hunting" (read: walking around a local park with a camera) at earliest opportunity. I find the question of the possible existence of unknown large primates to be an interesting scientific issue. I know multiple people who claim to have seen Bigfoot or one of his near relations, and I find their stories interesting.
I also watch Finding Bigfoot.
I do not do this in hopes of seeing the cast of the show actually find a sasquatch. I know this will not happen. I know this because it is a television series, and thus its main goal is to ensure continued production. That means more episodes wherein our four noble squatchers go to various locations, talk to various people, and fail to find Bigfoot. Indeed, one might note that their methodology - short investigations with camera crews, sticking to roads, not putting up trailcams for extended surveys of a particular area, repeatedly yowling at each other to the point where no self-respecting sasquatch would be able to get a word in edgewise, setting off fireworks, hauling a baboon into the woods, and inviting sasquatches to a rave. The plan for next week's episode - apparently it's using a Girl Scout troop as bait - buries the needle on the Batshit-o-crazy meter, unless Bobo's right and sasquatches really love Thin Mints that goddamned much.
No, I watch it for entertainment value. I watch it for the goofy situations and the earnest believerhood of cast member Cliff and the puffed-up frothing of cast member Matt and the weary skepticism of cast member Ranae and the plain old whackadoodle of cast member Bobo. I watch it for folks trying to guess how tall something they think they saw in the dark three years prior might be, and I watch it for the sheer hilarity of watching Matt step all over his castmates in an effort to shore up his alpha male status. William Shatner used to line-count Star Trek scripts; Moneymaker line-counts sasquatch calls per episode, and nobody's allowed to howl like a wolverine gargling Top Job more than he is. And I find this hilarious, to the point where I live-tweet the show under the hashtag #FindingBigfoot, because, hey, it's a popular show and there are lots of other people out there doing the same, and social media signal amplification and all that good stuff. Honestly, most of the tweets are either from true believers or are in the same vein of gentle ribbing that I enjoy; there's about a half dozen fake Sasquatch accounts mixed in there for good measure.
But here and there, there's some folks mixed in who take things very seriously, and who are genuinely offended that the team has not yet delivered on the nonexistent promise to find Bigfoot. They are righteous, I tell you, and they are mad, and God dammit, they expect a scientific mystery decades old to be solved before the first commercial break, verifiable evidence be damned.
To which I say: God help you people, because you're missing the point. This is entertainment. The point is not to find Bigfoot. The point is to amuse us couch potatoes with the NVG-ed up misadventures of these sasquatch-hunting Beatles (Bobo = Ringo, fer sure) week after week with a formula. Real research into seriously attempting to find evidence of a large hominid loose on, say, the Olympic Peninsula would be lengthy. It would be expensive. It would be slow. It would be boring. And it would make for lousy television. Which, in the end, is what this show is. And that, vague rustlings in the distance aside, is all it needs to be.
January 5, 2013
The Irregular Stuff Report
Next weekend, I'm appearing at Illogicon in Raleigh. Two panels Saturday, one panel and a reading on Sunday. And if that isn't enough enticement for you, the GoH is the mighty Tim Powers. I, personally, intend to geek out all over him. You should, too.
Over in the book review department, there's this one concerning a Nazi-hunting werewolf via Robert McCammon over at Green Man Review. And this one, touching on a short book by Brandon Sanderson. And this one, covering the epic fantasy anthology edited by John Joseph Adams. And this one, which offers werewolves and upstate New York, but no Nazis, courtesy of Kelly Armstrong. And this look at the collected first few issues of Justice League: Dark .
Meanwhile, over at Sleeping Hedgehog, you can find the possibly true tale of my favorite folk song, and my quick picks for best book and album of the year.
And, with luck, there'll be some big news to announce soon. Stay tuned...
Over in the book review department, there's this one concerning a Nazi-hunting werewolf via Robert McCammon over at Green Man Review. And this one, touching on a short book by Brandon Sanderson. And this one, covering the epic fantasy anthology edited by John Joseph Adams. And this one, which offers werewolves and upstate New York, but no Nazis, courtesy of Kelly Armstrong. And this look at the collected first few issues of Justice League: Dark .
Meanwhile, over at Sleeping Hedgehog, you can find the possibly true tale of my favorite folk song, and my quick picks for best book and album of the year.
And, with luck, there'll be some big news to announce soon. Stay tuned...
January 4, 2013
Things I Think I Think About The Hobbit
It’s nice to see Peter Jackson has learned that supporting characters exist to do more than just make the main character in a given scene look brilliant. It’s a major step up from the characterization in the LotR movies.The fastest way between two points in Middle Earth is still apparently “Find the highest geologic feature in the vicinity and walk along it in single file”Clearly, the key to getting over the Misty Mountains in record time is riding a rabbit-drawn sledge. Walking? Not so much.I realize that the character design in the Rankin-Bass Hobbit wasn’t what you’d call great, but at least their version of The Great Goblin did not appear to have a giant ball sack for a chin.Someone needs to remind Radagast that the best way to draw enemies away from someone is to go in the opposite direction. “I’ll lead them off by taking a course that very closely parallels yours” tends not to work too well.Judging by all the waterfalls pouring into Rivendell, elves have gills and Elrond’s basement is continuously flooded.Interesting to see how second- and third-generation geek media – all hugely influenced by Tolkien – influenced elements of The Hobbit. Warhammer, WoW, Magic – you can see their legacy clearly, especially in the character designs.So, can orcs go out in the daylight or not? The rules seemed kind of fuzzy.Speaking of orcs, good call on their part to get Kratos to play Azog the Defiler.Dwarf singing is awesome. More, please.It is entirely possible, based on what we saw, that the reason Thranduil did not assist the dwarves of Erebor against the dragon because he was stoned out of his gourd. Clearly, dwarf hair care products is the growth industry in Middle-Earth before the War of the Ring. Or possibly Dwarfscaping.The dwarves were the only thing the Eagles didn't fumble and have returned for a touchdown this year.
January 3, 2013
Thirteen Things I Think About Skyfall
Beware. Spoilers and snark ahead.
Clearly, the best way to survive a gunshot wound is to swim through a credits sequence.
Dame Judi Dench is wonderful. At the same time, as M she left her most valuable piece of intel on a laptop in Istanbul, she got a bunch of agents killed and her building blown up, she failed to mention that armed men were coming to kill her during her government hearing (which the security staff might have had interest in learning so they could have avoided all getting shot), and then she dropped off the grid at a moment of crisis only to die of getting shot in the ass (and not bandaging it). One begins to see why they wanted to fire her.
Would it have been too much to put Ralph Fiennes in a bowler hat just once? Yeah, probably. Forget I said anything.
Odds that Bond’s gun ends up in the hands of the PLA, once the komodo dragon finishes with it? Pretty high.
Glad to see that Richard Ayoade’s character from The IT Crowd is the new Q. Sorry to see that he’s not being played by Richard Ayoade
Loved the visuals of the movie - the cathedral of server racks in Silva’s HQ was particularly striking.
I do think the script could have used a little more heavy-handed speechifying about old school vs. new school.
Seriously? Just make a phone call and say “stop the train”. You have that power.
The day the good guys stop plugging the bad guys’ computers into their main networks is the day I die happy at the movies.
Best Bond theme in ages, without a doubt. It felt very Shirley Bassey, in all the right ways.
Sad to see how a movie that started exploring the power of information warfare sort of fell back into the usual Hollywood “computers are magic that can do everything until they suddenly can’t do anything”
On the whole, I enjoyed it, but it was really a case of enjoying individual sequences rather than the film as a whole
Clearly, the best way to survive a gunshot wound is to swim through a credits sequence.
Dame Judi Dench is wonderful. At the same time, as M she left her most valuable piece of intel on a laptop in Istanbul, she got a bunch of agents killed and her building blown up, she failed to mention that armed men were coming to kill her during her government hearing (which the security staff might have had interest in learning so they could have avoided all getting shot), and then she dropped off the grid at a moment of crisis only to die of getting shot in the ass (and not bandaging it). One begins to see why they wanted to fire her.
Would it have been too much to put Ralph Fiennes in a bowler hat just once? Yeah, probably. Forget I said anything.
Odds that Bond’s gun ends up in the hands of the PLA, once the komodo dragon finishes with it? Pretty high.
Glad to see that Richard Ayoade’s character from The IT Crowd is the new Q. Sorry to see that he’s not being played by Richard Ayoade
Loved the visuals of the movie - the cathedral of server racks in Silva’s HQ was particularly striking.
I do think the script could have used a little more heavy-handed speechifying about old school vs. new school.
Seriously? Just make a phone call and say “stop the train”. You have that power.
The day the good guys stop plugging the bad guys’ computers into their main networks is the day I die happy at the movies.
Best Bond theme in ages, without a doubt. It felt very Shirley Bassey, in all the right ways.
Sad to see how a movie that started exploring the power of information warfare sort of fell back into the usual Hollywood “computers are magic that can do everything until they suddenly can’t do anything”
On the whole, I enjoyed it, but it was really a case of enjoying individual sequences rather than the film as a whole
November 24, 2012
Things I'm up to
So, this is a thing I'm doing next week.My talk is called "Breaking Up With Armageddon", which hopefully will not end with a meteor impact on the Porte de Versailles.
Also, I've been promoted to front page status over at Green Man Review, which means not only do I get to do book reviews, I also get to post occasional things like this discussion of the transition in the late Kage Baker's Company series, or this twin review of two Graham Joyce novels.
There's always the day job, so here's a peek at a current trailer for Splinter Cell: Blacklist.
StoneSkin Press reports that the hardcopies of The Lion and the Aardvark, which contains my story "The Unicorn at the Soiree", have come in. You can gaze upon their loveliness here.
And there is the local author holiday gift guide, courtesy of the fine folks over at Bull Spec.
Also, I've been promoted to front page status over at Green Man Review, which means not only do I get to do book reviews, I also get to post occasional things like this discussion of the transition in the late Kage Baker's Company series, or this twin review of two Graham Joyce novels.
There's always the day job, so here's a peek at a current trailer for Splinter Cell: Blacklist.
StoneSkin Press reports that the hardcopies of The Lion and the Aardvark, which contains my story "The Unicorn at the Soiree", have come in. You can gaze upon their loveliness here.
And there is the local author holiday gift guide, courtesy of the fine folks over at Bull Spec.
October 7, 2012
Austin
Tomorrow - today, really - I take off for Austin, and the final incarnation of the Game Narrative Summit, previously known as the Game Writing Summit, previously known as the Game Writing Track at GDC Austin, previously known as the Game Writers Conference. You get the idea.
It's not the end of the conference. We're moving - and I say "we" in part because I'm on the advisory board for the conference, and in part because it really is the sort of community that invites one to use collective pronouns reflexively - to the main GDC in San Francisco next year. The call for papers is out. We haven't sold the old house and already we're buying curtains for the new one.
I'll miss Austin. It and a herd of game writers were a good fit. We set up shop at The Ginger Man early and it became our home away from home here, a place we returned to every year like the slightly tipsy swallows to Capistrano or the bats to the Congress Street Bridge. it became a thing not to be missed, a homecoming and a community.
I remember walking into the room for the very first talk of the very first one of these. Marc Laidlaw of Valve was the speaker, and he gave a fantastic talk, but it's what happened before he spoke that floored me. I walked in, and looked around, and saw a room full of game writers. Some were old pros, some were students aspiring to get in the biz, but there they - there we all were. And I said to myself, "I'm not alone", and I said to myself, "These are my people."
Now it's nearly a decade later, and it's our last hurrah in Austin. Some of those students I saw at that first talk are grizzled pros now, and they're reaching back to give a hand to the students behind them. So it goes, and so I hope it always will. Community, the sharing of knowledge, the respect for our shared craft and our fellow practitioners.
I'm looking forward to San Francisco. I have no doubt we will do amazing things there. But Austin's been good to us, and I'll miss it.
It's not the end of the conference. We're moving - and I say "we" in part because I'm on the advisory board for the conference, and in part because it really is the sort of community that invites one to use collective pronouns reflexively - to the main GDC in San Francisco next year. The call for papers is out. We haven't sold the old house and already we're buying curtains for the new one.
I'll miss Austin. It and a herd of game writers were a good fit. We set up shop at The Ginger Man early and it became our home away from home here, a place we returned to every year like the slightly tipsy swallows to Capistrano or the bats to the Congress Street Bridge. it became a thing not to be missed, a homecoming and a community.
I remember walking into the room for the very first talk of the very first one of these. Marc Laidlaw of Valve was the speaker, and he gave a fantastic talk, but it's what happened before he spoke that floored me. I walked in, and looked around, and saw a room full of game writers. Some were old pros, some were students aspiring to get in the biz, but there they - there we all were. And I said to myself, "I'm not alone", and I said to myself, "These are my people."
Now it's nearly a decade later, and it's our last hurrah in Austin. Some of those students I saw at that first talk are grizzled pros now, and they're reaching back to give a hand to the students behind them. So it goes, and so I hope it always will. Community, the sharing of knowledge, the respect for our shared craft and our fellow practitioners.
I'm looking forward to San Francisco. I have no doubt we will do amazing things there. But Austin's been good to us, and I'll miss it.
September 27, 2012
Things! Stuff! (Not Sleep)
Book reviews a'plenty - books by Robert Sheckley and Liz Williams and edited by Christopher Golden and oh wait here's one about a book by C. E. Murphy, and a manga by Madeline Rosca, and a couple of novellas by Bill Pronzini.
Interviews - There's a couple up relating to the onrushing Game Narrative Summit in Austin, the second week of October. The meatier of the two has me and Tom Abernathy being tag-teamed by ZAM.
Video - And hey, look, here's a video of a panel I was one with fine folks like Randy Greenback of Insomniac from the Escapist Expo, wherein we talk about the future of the shooter genre.
More to come shortly, possibly when I'm conscious.
Interviews - There's a couple up relating to the onrushing Game Narrative Summit in Austin, the second week of October. The meatier of the two has me and Tom Abernathy being tag-teamed by ZAM.
Video - And hey, look, here's a video of a panel I was one with fine folks like Randy Greenback of Insomniac from the Escapist Expo, wherein we talk about the future of the shooter genre.
More to come shortly, possibly when I'm conscious.
September 24, 2012
The Wool/Copper Anniversary
Today is the seventh anniversary of a particularly foggy day atop Mt. Pisgah, when Melinda and I were married. Seven, by some accounts, is either the copper or the wool anniversary. One of the very first gifts I ever game her was a copper raven necklace, picked up in Finland whilst I was attending Ropecon; as for wool, it's a good thing she likes to make her own yarn AND i know where her favorite yarn store is. (The fact that she was with me when we stopped in helped, too.) Alternately, I could get her onyx, or a jack-in-the-pulpit, or a desk set, all of which leads one to believe that someone was making up this whole "formal anniversary gift" thing as they were going along. "Hey Bobby, what we got for twelve years?" "I dunno, maybe...Venus flytraps, pleather, bauxite and asparagus?" "Poifect!" And so it goes.
That being said, in the end it's completely beside the point. I love my wife madly. I am proud and happy and humbled to be her husband, and I have felt that way, lo, these last seven years.
I look forward to feeling that way for many, many more.
That being said, in the end it's completely beside the point. I love my wife madly. I am proud and happy and humbled to be her husband, and I have felt that way, lo, these last seven years.
I look forward to feeling that way for many, many more.
September 23, 2012
Restaurant Review - Alivia's
Melinda had to work this afternoon, so I met her downtown for dinner and suggested we give Alivia's another shot. Rumor had it that they'd switched chefs recently - I don't pay that much attention to the restaurant scene, family matters excluded - and while we hadn't been that impressed the last few times we'd gone, we figured that was enough of a reason to give it another shot.
Service - Not great. It took a bit for us to get acknowledged, then our waitress didn't know where to put us in a largely empty dining room, then we sat for a good while before anyone took our drink order. They were out of the wine Melinda ordered, and the fallback was...not impressive.
Menu - Same as it ever was, food-wise. The main addition seemed to be in the mixed drink and shooter options.
Food - Melinda liked her salmon, though she wasn't impressed by the sauce. I got the hangar steak with pomegranate demiglaze and sweet potato fries with bleu cheese; the fries were overdone and the steak under-seasoned. We skipped dessert, though the notion of an alcoholic Cheerwine slushie held an awful fascination.
Overall - Meh. Not terrible, but we probably won't be back, not with so many other options in the area.
Service - Not great. It took a bit for us to get acknowledged, then our waitress didn't know where to put us in a largely empty dining room, then we sat for a good while before anyone took our drink order. They were out of the wine Melinda ordered, and the fallback was...not impressive.
Menu - Same as it ever was, food-wise. The main addition seemed to be in the mixed drink and shooter options.
Food - Melinda liked her salmon, though she wasn't impressed by the sauce. I got the hangar steak with pomegranate demiglaze and sweet potato fries with bleu cheese; the fries were overdone and the steak under-seasoned. We skipped dessert, though the notion of an alcoholic Cheerwine slushie held an awful fascination.
Overall - Meh. Not terrible, but we probably won't be back, not with so many other options in the area.
September 22, 2012
rdansky @ 2012-09-23T00:25:00
I did the Escapist Expo in Durham last weekend, which got me thinking. I'll leave the recaps and overviews and whatnot to others; suffice to say I had a good time and was impressed with both the attendance and the organization. (I set the high score on the Dig Dug machine in the classic arcade. Old School in the house, etc. etc. etc.)
And, I spent a major chunk of the show and afterwards hanging out with friends-slash-professional peers from the tabletop RPG days: the gentlemanly Bill Bridges, the ever-charming Chris Pramas, and Hal Mangold, who is a Nationals fan but whom I like anyway. There were a lot of stories told, and a lot of catching up done, and a lot of terrible alcohol consumed by me. (Seriously. Stay away from the framboise sauvage at the West End Wine Bar, as you value your liver). It was a great time.
But it made me realize one thing. I love my job, and I love my work, but damn, if I don't occasionally miss the funky, close-knit cameraderie of the tabletop days. And it was nice to get a little bit of that again.
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPad.
