Jeff Grubb's Blog, page 52

Films: SIFF SFF SFF

11th Annual Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Film Festival, Cinerama Theatre, Seattle.

So yesterday Stan and I went down to the Cinerama in Seattle (not too far from where I work) to spend about five hours watching short science fiction films. This would be the Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Film Festival, presented by the EMP and SIFF (Seattle International Film Festival).So yeah, it is the SFF SFF presented by SIFF.

The reason for us going was that a friend from WOTC, Cindi Rice, was a producer on one of these pieces. She wasn't go to make the showing, but knew that the director, Reed Shusterman, was going to make it, and had some extra tickets. Hence, Cinerama theatre, Saturday afternoon for about five hours, encompassing 19 films.

Their film is Goblin Queen, and (spoilers) was my fave of the group. The setup is pure Disney Channel - teenage girl finds magic amulet that transports her to a fantasy universe. What makes it cool is that it does not follow the girl, but rather her mother - a bit of a control freak, who is dealing with her daughter disappearing at a moment's notice. And then when things from the OTHER universe comes spilling into ours, things get wild. Goblin Queen is well-written and well-acted, but what really makes it a fave is that it works without a huge amount of special effects. Tightly-packed and concise, kept to the small house in the real world, it worked its magic without a lot of post-production (Indeed, in the after-movie interviews, the directors who made it to the festival complained that their films were two days to shoot, two years to get the post-production right).

One thing I also liked about Goblin Queen was the sense of resolution to the film. A lot of the short films shown are demos, teasers, trailers, or proof-of-concepts for potential larger films. The problem is that if they don't resolve the story, they leave the viewer hanging. There was a lot of that in the festival - Aden (winner of the Judges Prize and the Douglas Trumbull Award for Visual Effects) was an extremely well-done, well-conceived, well-executed chase sequence between an agent of unknown origins and child's mechanized imaginary friend, but it was the first ten minutes of an unfinished movie. The Garden, a tale of humanity integrated into AIs is excellent but also felt like it strained to be a full feature. Mis-Drop, a take on a green soldier going into battle, would be a great first five minutes of a video game. The Red Thunder WOULD be the first five minutes of a Disney Channel show where a teenage girl borrows her mom's car and discovers her mom's secret.

All this is well and good (and make no mistake, these are short films that if they grow up to long films, I would watch), but all left me with more questions than answers.

Then there are the WTFs - In Bionic Girl a scientist creates an big-headed android duplicate who replaces her and sends her to hell (There's a lot of singing. In french). Disco Inferno starts with Hammer-Film virgin sacrifice and ends with an office party and has a lot of weirdness in between. Tristes Deserts (A Robot's Tale) was described on Twitter as a Daft Punk video, and involves a white robot with an Elizabethan neck ruff fighting an ebony octopus. And poodles. There are poodles involved.

OK, but what else did I LIKE? Frost, a tale of arctic hunter scavenging in a sleeping city was extremely evocative. The No Look Dunk was cute and short and played with time travel just as long as it had to. Juliet links sex doll robots with iPhones in news clips and commercials.

And The Brain Hack. Serious seizure warning on this one. No, not kidding. This one took the Audience Award, was an excellent, subversive, knowing film that built suspense mercilessly in a film about a refining images to stimulating the "god" center of the brain. Its very good, and got me seriously creeped out, and would not be out of place at the HPLovecraft film festival.

All in all? Good. If you get a chance to see these films (and some are on YouTube or Vimeo from the links above, while others get attached to other films in showing), hunt them down.

More later

Play: Social Studies

Luna Gale by Rebecca Gilman, Directed by Braden Abraham, Seattle Rep through March 26

The Rep continues a very, very strong season with a play about social work. And this is one of the benefits of season tickets: I honestly can imagine a world where I would wake up one Sunday morning and say, "You know, I'm in the mood for a play about social workers, meth addicts, and religious fundies all using a baby as a football", but that's only because I have a very good imagination. Most of the time it would (at best) a "heh, that sounds interesting" and never follow up on it. Season tickets, prepaid, gets me to the theater for gems such as this.

That previous described scenario, by the way, is the plot. We meet the meth addict parents of Luna Gale first in the emergency room. The infant child of the title has been brought in with extreme dehydration. Both parents are strung out at different stages - Karlie (Hannah Mootz) hyper and Peter (Drew Highlands) crashing. They are confronted by child protective services worker Caroline (Pamela Reed), who challenges the parents to clean up their acts and in the meantime must find a safe home for the child. Fortunately, Karlie's mom Cindy (Anne Allgood) is a enthusiastic and willing candidate, and is a nurse's assistant with a clean home and a sunny attitude. But Caroline finds out that that grandma is a holy roller of the end-of-days variety, and when the grandmother wants full custody Caroline drags her heels. Pastor Jay (Adrian LaTourelle) from Cindy's church tries to moderate the situation, while Caroline's boss (Alex Matthews) pushes hard for a speedy resolution, plus Caroline is dealing with a horrible case load and the former client (Pilar O'Connell) who has now aged out of the system.

There's more going on, but Caroline is at the center of it all, a straight-forward professional woman with an eye for what goes by the book and how the rules can be bent in order to get the best resolution for the children entrusted to her. She works from the gut and is by turns measured and threatening, knowing the power she wields while being frustrated by the limitations of that power. She is resolute and defiant and heartbroken all at the same time, and Ms. Reed does a fine job assaying her.

Indeed, all the cast does well, and in part it because the playwright's deft hand with characters and situations. Gilman does her original work with the Goodman in Chicago, but a lot of her plays have made it west to Seattle. Bad Dates (which I missed), Spinning into Butter, and the haunting Boy Gets Girl all have shown up at the Rep, so she is as much a regular as the actors.

And through her plays, Gilman examines and power and powerlessness of institution, of the precarious balance of playing by the rules and playing with the rules. Caroline is a master of the subtlety of working within the system, and while not given to quixotic tilts at windmills, is used to folding the system back on itself to attempt some measure of a happy ending. And Gilman promises no happy endings in her works, so you have to satisfied with what you get, just as in real life.

Gilman also masterfully shies away from making characters black and white, instead looking at them as shades of grey, with their own traumas and triumphs. The meth addict parents have their redemptive moments, and the Christian characters are presented in a positive, extremely balanced fashion And this is red meat for actors. Anne Allgood is fantastic as Grandmother Cindy, mixing vulnerability and desire to make good in such a convincing fashion that you wonder if Caroline is wrong to deny her the child. Similarly, Pastor Jay is not some Simpson's-level preacher, but comes across as a real individual maintaining his faith in an often-hostile work. Similarly, Drew Highlands' drugged out Peter rises to the challenge of making his surfer-dude father more than a caricature.

But at the center of it, is social worker Caroline, beset from all sides, trying to figure out what is best for the child while dealing with her own failures. Pamela Reed, who was excellent in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf as the lush, brazen Martha, is equally amazing as a tired, worn Caroline summoning up the courage to believe in her own gut instincts, and navigating the channels of bureaucratic organization with the goal of saving Luna Gale.

The stagework itself bears mentioning - it is sliding box of Tertris pieces, with scenery gliding onto and off stage in both directions in a neat and concise manner, selling the various scenes without requiring a great deal of setup or letting the action lag. It is minor point in face of both excellent writing and fine acting, but delivers a call-out.

If Ms. Gilman's work is representative of modern theatre at the turn of this present century, then we can say that the medium is still moving forward and evolving using the most basic of components, creating engaging drama with believable characters and strong underlying morals. A very well-done play.

More later,

Game: Glory Days

Sails of Glory, Designed by Andrea Angiolino and Andrea Mainini, Published by Ares Games


The sailing ship was the single most complex machine of the early 1800s. It is constructed as a study in off-set stresses, sailed under the tension of its lines and sails, expected to function is the most extreme conditions (storms, battles), and dependent entirely on a human-driven switch system to control all its mechanisms. It is a complex, precise, overwhelming machine. On the other hand, it is also a very personalized experience - one feels one with a single ship
as its captain, determining the fate of it and all others aboard. Great grist for a game, but balancing those two opposing forces is more difficult than simply luffing the sails when beating to windward.


Sails of Glory pulls it off admirably. The game is a descendant of their air game Wings of Glory (which feature another set of technologically advanced but individually romanticized machines) and uses the same base mechanics as the earlier game. Each ship is represented by a single model, and cards lay out how the ships can move. You set the card at the front of the ship, it moves to the set location on the card (depending on the wind), then, remove the card from under it. The movement system is an improvement over the Wings of Glory in that you don't have to effectively pick up the craft it order to retrieve the card. In a miniatures game, the exact placement of a unit is critically important as far a being able to hit, so moving it around during game play is a challenge.

Combat is determined by range (short or long, as measured by a custom ruler) and by the type of fire (chain, shot). Each type of fire has its own basket of randomized chips to represent damage (long range has less-damage-inflicting chips, close range does more damage). In addition, there is small arms fire, which affects the crew. Damage to a ship can be against the ship itself, or the crew, and each ship has its own.

The rules themselves are broken up into nice bite-sized levels. The basic rules lay out card use and basic firing. With the standard rules you start laying out movements in advance and options for types of shot. More advanced levels add specific damage as well as assigned crew to particular stations. This was a little too granular for my group, but it does get into deep into the weeds of running a fighting ship.

Our Monday night group has played this a number of times, progressing through the rules, and found a learning curve as well in mastering the game. First major task was to stop sailing off the top of the table. Second was to accurately figure out how to bring the ship into the wind in order to turn. We actually have gotten quite good at it. There is a dual challenge to mastering the game -  both knowing the rules, and utilizing those rules on the tabletop. Doing both required a number of play sessions.

The core game has two British and two French ship models, of a light and heavy version for each. The heavier ships inflict more damage, while the lighter ships are faster and more maneuverable. In the last play sessions we would say that the heavies have the advantage, but the game itself was extremely enjoyable. Additional ships are available separately (with their own cards handling manuver), though the game could use a rating system for balancing battles between different ships.

Sails of Glory fits that nice category of games that are easy to learn at first, then ramp up the difficultly as they become more accurate simulations. The basic is game is fun to master, and brings you along to more difficult attempts. I've been a fan of various sailing games over the years, and this one combines ease of play, use of miniatures, variety of ships, and expandability. If you can find it, check it out.

More later,

The Gaming News: Departures and Arrivals

Just one item, but it is a doozy.

February 12th will be my last day at ArenaNet. I have been here nearly a decade, and am extremely proud of what I and my co-workers have achieved in creating a deep, engaging MMO with broad appeal. I know that both Tyria and Guild Wars are in good hands with my departure. Over the years, ArenaNet has put together an amazing team of talented individuals and empowered them to create cool things.
And so it begins ...
February 15th will be my first day at Amazon Game Studios. I have accepted a position as senior narrative designer. I can't say much at this point, but readers of this blog know that I rarely share information until it is time to do so (So yeah, you'll find out what I'm working on when it ships). I'm really looking forward to the new opportunities (though not, of course, the commute).

It is a start of a new chapter in my life. I am both thrilled and terrified by the possibilities.

More later,

Play: Pickapath Universes

Constellations by Nick Payne, directed by Desdemona Chiang Seattle Rep, through 21 February
Constellations is a quirky little love story set against the theory of multiple universes. It consists of a series of vignettes between beekeeper Roland (Max Gordon Moore) and cosmologist Marianne (Alexandra Tavares) on a bare stage. They meet at a mutual friend's barbecue. She flirts, he says he's involved. A bell sounds, they start again. She flirts, he says he's just broken up and isn't interested. Bell sounds, start again. She flirts and he responds, then mentions he's married. Bell sounds, start again.
It goes on like this as we move through the cute meet, the first date, the relationship, the breakup, the reuniting, the marriage, the diagnosis, the choices we make at the end of life. Starts and stops, alternate scenes in alternate universes where the characters are the same but not identical. A bell sounds, we start again. And it is a perilous path for a playwright to take and a challenge for the actors. The third time that  Roland tries to use an explanation of bee society to a marriage proposal is funny, the sixth time we are deeply into Monte Python looking to wrap up an episode. 
Moore and Tavares are very good in all this, but the play often feels like they are looking for the right line reading in rehearsal, trying the words on with various levels of engagement and intensity. Tavares in particular has the tougher time as she shifts convincingly into the ravages of her cancer and out again as the play messes not only with alternities but with time itself, foreshadowing with future scenes and leaping back to earlier temporal nodes. But ultimately, as the Lovely B noted, nothing here that Dr. Who has not addressed earlier and better. 
(And yes, I am using British comparisons because it is set in Great Britain and everything sounds better in British. I wonder if the play would fly as well as it does if Roland and Mariane were Ronald and Mary Anne from Chicago.)
There are deep ideas rolling around in here beneath the surface, and the play gets marks for not calling them out to dance on the stage, but rather uses them quietly to power the action. The title, while not directly commented on, reflects part of the quandary of quantum physics - Constellations do not truly exist, except in the minds of those on Earth gathering stars into particular patterns. The observers are determining the nature of the universe. Time and free will exists because we determine it to be so. But while the play opens the doors for the curious, I don't thnk it delivers on them. A pair of ladies behind us read a summary of the play from the program book (loudly), and one declared, "Well, I read all that and I still don't know what its about". I fear the may still be in that boat at the play's conclusions.

In a season when the Rep has been knocking plays out of the park right and left with amazing accuracy, Constellations is a bunt, or maybe even a base on balls. It was OK, and probably would not disappoint in a normal year. But the Rep has gotten so good recently that it just feels like an average theater outing as opposed to must-see stagecraft. 
More later, 

DOW Breaks 16000!

So this happened last week. After floating above the 17000 mark for some time, stalled in its supposedly inevitable climb, the market took a dramatic shift southward. This is either short term (which they call "a correction") or long term (which they call "the start of a new recession ohmighod!"). Since that time, it has engaged is leisurely 200 and 300-point sweeps up and down the new posting of 16000.

Most times, when there is a major milestone crossed (up or down), there is no one thing one can point to, and the analysts are clustered around a grab-bag of theories. In this case, conventional wisdom seems to have coalesced into two big things - Oil and China. Neither is completely true by itself, but combined makes a market skittish.

Oil is in oversupply right now. Saudi Arabia is overproducing in order to drive other, more expensive oil production venues (like oil from Dakota shale or the Albertan oil sands or deep-water drilling in the Pacific) off the market. Add to that the fact that, with the end of sanctions, Iranian oil will be coming back online. As opposed to the era of OPEC when a gathering of like-minded oiligarchies gathered together to boost the prices in the 70s, now we see a lot of price-slashing.

And this should be a good thing for you and me, and indeed, gas prices have plummeted (well, in most places - not so much in the Pacific Northwest). Prices below two bucks a gallon are getting common. We should be happy, right?

Not exactly. The stock market has made as one of its foundation stones the idea that prices will continue to go upward, making the oil reserves a more valuable trade commodity. Taking that away makes them very nervous.

China has been booming over the past few years, and continues to grow. But the volatility of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, boosted by an influx of mid-level investors, have created a number of financial bubbles that have required the government has had to step into to fix once they burst. Given the size of the economy, when China sneezes, a lot of other folk catch cold. It is considered volatile and therefore bad, and as a result the other markets are volatile.

But the weirdness in all this underscores the nature of the DOW and other stock markets themselves. They seem to be based on fantasies of a magnitude greater than those spun by Tolkien or Dunsany. Low oil prices should result more money for the consumers which should result in greater consumer spending. China continues to grow in the midst its free-market teething problems (Oh, and on the West Coast, a lot of the money being made is being poured into US real estate).

This sense of fantasy is reflected in the reception of news on individual stocks as well. Company A had an amazing year, but because the forecast was for an even MORE amazing year, its stock has fallen. Company B shipped more units than ever this year, but next year looks less productive, so its stock has fallen. Company C has seen some key sales slip, but beat profit estimates, so its stock has risen. Go figure.

It does feel all kind of mystical, where things happen in outer world and then are retrofitted to justify whatever is happening within an economic hothouse environment. Yet I suppose that provides more economic solace than a Lovecraftian economic universe, where the invisible hands of uncaring finanical titans move without regard to the ripples of their passing make.

More later,

Play: Hail to the King, Baby!

King Kirby by Fred Van Lente and Crystal Skillman, Directed by Rob Raas-Bergquist. Ghost Light Theatricals

Jack Kirby was one of the great creative forces of American comics. His art is dramatic, iconic, and immediately recognized. He built much of the modern comics mythology. His story is that of the rise and fall and rise again of the media. We have movies about superheroes, why not have plays about comic book creators?

The play itself is by Fred Van Lente, comic author, who wrote the excellent Action Philosophers series (explaining philosophy in comic book iconography - think of Plato as the Incredible Hulk) and award winning playwright Crystal Skillman. In fact good sequences of the play first showed up in Comic Book Comics by Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey.

The play chronicles Kirby's life, bookended by a Sotheby's auction of his work for prices he was never paid. Tough kid on the lower east side with artistic talent, became an in-betweener for Popeye cartoons before teaming up with Joe Simon to create Captain America, followed by a stint in Europe really punching Hitler in the face, followed by a return to comics upset by Fred Wertham and the comics code, followed by Marvel and the machinating Stan Lee. Through it all Kirby comes through as a brilliant talent who was often too cautious to press for his own rights. First Simon and then Lee were the opportunistic suits/partners who brought Kirby into their plans and encouraged (and often took over) his creations.

The actors are excellent. Rick Espaillat is Kirby, and gets the man down, right down to his smile (I had a fleeting, comic book convention meeting with the original - he was friendly and professional, I was gob-smacked to be in his presence). Espaillat is on-stage the entire play, the rest of ensemble switches in and out of roles with a fluid grace, main characters rising and then diminishing as the years pass. Jason Huff is a sound-bite spouting Funky Flashman of a Stan Lee. James Lyle is a tall drink of water version of Joe Simon, but gives up the role to Anastasia Greeley easily. Greeley for her part is the young Roz, Kirby's wife, who passes it on to Eileen McCann, who is also is the Sotheby's auctioneer. Steven Sterne is delightful as the never-ending slew of bosses who Kirby worked for over the years. They work with a drill-team precision for scenes, and change chameleon-like from major characters to minor ones at the drop of the hat.  Espaillat commands his way through the entire proceedings as Kirby.

The proceedings at the Ghost Light are in the round, which sadly guarantees that for any major scene, there is a one in four chance that you are looking at someone's back. That said, the staging (four entrances to a raised central stage) in minimal and allows for the quick changing of setting, often in mid-scene.

Kirby's story is that of a man who just wants to create, who revels in bringing to life great concepts, but that conception does not line up entirely with the demands of the machine that produces the final product for general consumption. From mobbed-up distributors to government intervention to corporate lawyers, the "real world" has a nasty tendency to impinge on the golden glow of creation from Kirby's fertile mind who ended up creating, but not controlling, a modern mythology.

And yeah, to a much smaller degree, I know the feeling.

More later,

The Case of the Missing Dragon

I don't often talk about what happens at a personal level here at Grubb Street, and when I do its about the positive things (holidays, parties and gatherings). But in this case I'm making an exception.
Lockheed, in happier times.
You see, someone has stolen our dragon.
We had a dragon gargoyle, about two feet tall and about 60 pounds heavy, that for several years has guarded our front stoop. And right before Christmas, the Lovely Bride went out with a Santa hat to put on the dragon, and found it gone.
And it was very concern-making, in part because we don't know exactly WHEN the statue disappeared. It was there for Thanksgiving, but in the rainstorms that followed we were not paying attention and it could have happened up to a few days previously. 
Possible means and motive are equally wonky. Our driveway isn't particularly obvious to people driving by, and someone stealing it on-foot would have to lug off a sixty-pound concrete statue. In could have been a prank, but there was an uncarved pumpkin right next to it, a remnant of Halloween kept on to T-Giving, that was unscathed. Stealing it for sale it is equally wonky, since there were other things in the area that could have been scarpered just as easily that were untouched.
It is not the first time this sort of thing has happened. Our area is rural turning to suburban, but we have had thefts over the years. The gargoyle itself was a replacement for a light-weight lawn ornament sea serpent that mysteriously vanished one afternoon (AFTER we were visited by Mormon Missionaries, who probably were not at fault, but could have just been Stalking Horses, I suppose). We were outright burgled many years ago (they got old computers, a TV, our CDs, and a skull-shaped pin made from a prop of the Terminator movie; We responded by getting a security system and training the cats in Akido). And in a case that continues to confound me to this day, someone stole our garbage one year (for what, information? Sorry, we shred).
The LB and I are concerned and little uncomfortable that someone came up to the house and pirated our dragon off. On one hand, it is just stuff, but on the other it is stuff that we had a direct connection with (it was named Lockheed. Now you can feel REALLY bad). We reported it, of course, not because we expect an APB on a concrete dragon, but in case there has been a spate of lawn ornament thefts, and if, after long investigation, the Kent police find it with a thousand garden gnomes down in a warehouse in the valley.
Well, there's hope at least.
More later,

Play: The Demolished Man

Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar, directed by Kimberly Senior, Seattle Rep, Through 31 January.

While the Seahawks have ended their football hopes for the year, the REP continues with one of the strongest seasons I have seen for years. The most recent addition is the dark one-act Disgraced, which takes the theatrical trope of the dinner party and pulls it off.

Amir (Bernard White) is what Tom Wolfe would call a Master of the Universe. He is a corporate lawyer in Manhattan who can get Knicks tickets and whose name appears every so often in the Times. He has a stylish Manhattan apartment and an adoring wife Emily (Nisi Sturgis), an artist with a chance at a breakout show. That show is put together by Isaac (J Anthony Crane) whose wife Jory (Zakiya Young) works with Amir at the law firm. They have dinner together.

But Amir has misrepresented himself. He is an apostate Muslim who rejects his faith and heritage to embrace the American ideals of achievement. He has changed his name and lets his co-workers think of him as an Indian, not a Pakistani. He is convinced that, should he be thought of as a Muslim, his world will fall apart.

And he's right. Starting with a favor for his more devout and political nephew (Behzad Dabu), Amir's life spirals out of control, culminating in an explosive dinner party with Isaac and Jory where deeper secrets are revealed and lives are sabotaged.

The Portrait of Juan de Paleja by
Diego Velazquez figures in all this as well.Amir's story is about race, religion, and heritage. But it is also about infidelity, social climbing, opportunities and art. The two sets of themes cannot be separated, and Akhtar does a fantastic job conjoining them. This is a troubling, unsettling play, and brilliant for it. Political without being polemic, it cricles the subjects and takes stabs from all sides. It is a play which does no hold still long enough to deliver a message one way or another and demands thought and consideration.

The actors are amazing. None of the characters are pure or innocent, all are packing their own betrayals and secrets which contribute to the destruction of Amir's public facade and private pride. The actors balance that public and private face expertly, creating characters with a sense of story and history.

There is mention of Moors early on, which evokes Othello, but this is an Othello with an internalized Iago acting towards his destruction. Amir has more in common with Eddie from A View from The Bridge, where his self-image, pride, and rejection of his heritage sows the seeds of his own fall from grace.

I have railed in this space about dinner-party plays, which take place in a relatively compact space and time and where everyone is nice and proper at the beginning and engaging in cannibalism by the end. And I often think that thing swould be better is someone just left the room, but that never happens. Akhtar stretches out the time frame with several scenes leading to the disastrous dinner, and DOES allow the character the freedom to get out of the room as opposed to immediately turning back on each other in another round of backbiting. In doing so he deepens the reality of the world, allows secrets to come out, and show that the characters are not just rats in a physical box, though they may be trapped in a metaphorical box of their own making.

I'm still working my way through this, which is always a good sign for a play. The play has gotten raves and rightly slow as disturbing and thoughtful theatre. Worth seeing.

More later,

My Year in Books: Ant Farm

[This year, I was curious about what I was reading, so when I finished a book I put it on an ever-growing pile by my desk. This is the last one in the series.]

Le Livre Des Fourmis (The Book of Ants) by Robin D. Laws, Pelgrane Press, 2014.
Provenance: Purchased at GenCon from Robin D. Laws, who also gave his autograph with the note: Vive la Revolution Surrealiste!

I don't review game products here. Wait, let me back up and clarify that on two points. I don't review game products that I have not actually played. Reviewing a game based on the printed word is sort of like reviewing a play by reading the script - it doesn't tell the full story. There are numerous reviews of adventures that I have run for our Call of Cthulhu group. The other clarification is that I promote other people's games without fear, particularly if they've just released something. For me to delay a review due to my slow reading habits should not stand in the way of you finding out about cool and new stuff.

Anyway, this is bit of fiction in that it ties into a recently published adventure setting called Bookhounds of Paris, which uses the Trail of Cthulhu game system. I've played Trail of Cthulhu, though have not run it (the amazing Steve Winter was the GM), and don't have the game product that might illuminate this further. But it stands on its own as a nicely weird merger of the Cthulhu Mythos (in particular the Dreamlands) with the avant garde artists of the interwar period.

The volume is presented as a diary (in the form that CoC players know well) by Henri Salem, a supposedly minor player in the artistic politics in Paris between the wars. He hangs with Andre Breton, Jacques Vache, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, and Salvador Dali (yeah, keep your Wikipedia open - I knew about half these guys before I started in on the work). They are a cliquish and diverse group, continually squabbling and factionalizing as they try to move forward (or backwards, or sidewards) the cause of Surrealism and thereby change the world. In the midst of this Salem's bunch discovers how to access the Dreamlands.

The Dreamlands were a Lovecraftian creation, a setting for many stories and in particular poems. Expanded and explored over the years in stories and games by other hands, they have their own parrallel existence. The surrealistic movement of the 20s and 30s worked to break down the walls between the conscious and unconscious nature of man, between dreams and reality. They considered what they were doing a form of enlightenment, a philosopher of which its art was considered mere artifact, by-product of the process of awakening and overturning the world. They are perfect candidates for exploring the Dreamlands.

The cool thing is, that in discovering the Dreamlands, the surrealists begin to change them. As opposed to a traditional fantasy domain, these Dreamlands are more fluid, responding the power of the dreamers themselves. So the Surrealists do change the world, only not the one they are thinking of.

I really like this for this effect, and by Laws way of threading the reality of the movement and its petty politics in with the arcane and mystical. Being Lovecraftian, things end badly for those involved, as it does in the real world for many of the participants. The book is an engaging, twisted melding of two great flavors, and now I suppose I must hunt down the game product to see what they did with it there.

More later,