Buys'n'Gifts
I got quite a few DVDs this week: Leverage Season 4, True Detective, Her, American Hustle, Don Jon, The Book of Life, The Girl from Monday and Flirt. And I got some video games in preparation for my weeks' vacation: Watch Dogs and LEGO Lord of the Rings. But it was also my birthday today - you might as well know - and former roomie Joelle made me some Doctor Who-inspired bead mats, on of them a TARDIS broach:
Thanks Jo!
"Accomplishments"
DVDs: I love a good heist/con movie, and Tower Heist, for all its comedy, is just as fun as an Ocean film. The twist is that this particular heist isn't performed by a crew of professionals. They're amateurs who want to pull a "Robin Hood" on the CEO who swindled everyone working at the Tower of their pension. So some may feel the film doesn't get to the heist soon enough, and Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy's "hilariousness" is definitely over-stated by the DVD cover, but the longer set-up lets us know and care about the characters, which is what drives the comedy. Director Brett Ratnor offers a few crazy stunts to go with a memorable MacGuffin, and the all-star cast makes it all come alive. A nice surprise! The DVD includes a commentary track shared by the director, writers and editor, as well as deleted/alternate scenes, a gag reel, and your standard making of.
Books: Behind the Sofa: Celebrity Memories of Doctor Who is a collection of more than 150 short pieces by authors, actors, politicians, first responders, musicians - all sorts, really, and not all of them "Celebrities" - recounting their earliest or strongest memories of Doctor Who and what the 50-year-old program has meant to them. Each entry will tell you briefly who the person was, add some amusing one-liner about their sometimes tenuous connection to Who, and include a unique graphic like those on the cover, relevant to the story it tells (there are very few repeats). It's a fun, breezy way to present the material, and the essays range from silly to poignant, as written by luminaries - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Julian Glover and lots of actors who have been in Doctor Who (including companions, but no Doctors) - or by people you won't believe the editors tracked down, like the girl who played Tegan on the TARDIS tent packaging art! And profits go to Alzheimer's research.
Improv: Well, just got done co-founding, co-organizing, co-running and co-officiating a 19+ improvisation tournament called the Zèbre d'Or (The Golden Zebra) and it was loads of fun. Great teams, great players, lots of surprises, the biggest of which being that they took it seriously enough not to play drunk out of their gourds, which so often happens with such meets. When I mention it on the Geekly Roundup, I usually try to show how I flew my geek flag during the tourney. Perhaps it's more nerdy than geeky, but I quite liked the one in the style of Aristophanes, complete with makeshift comedy leather phalli (oh Greek classics!), with high marks also going to an improv played to The Royal Tenenbaums soundtrack, and a dramatic tour de force about medical malpractice and doctors in lust. Thanks for the memories, guys. Pictures available on my Facebook page.
Hyperion to a Satyr posts this week:
V.i. Ophelia's Funeral
I got quite a few DVDs this week: Leverage Season 4, True Detective, Her, American Hustle, Don Jon, The Book of Life, The Girl from Monday and Flirt. And I got some video games in preparation for my weeks' vacation: Watch Dogs and LEGO Lord of the Rings. But it was also my birthday today - you might as well know - and former roomie Joelle made me some Doctor Who-inspired bead mats, on of them a TARDIS broach:
"Accomplishments"
Hyperion to a Satyr posts this week:
V.i. Ophelia's Funeral
Comments
Just won't, as some seem to expect, do Babylon 5 or any other reviewed show as an RPG.