Regan blogs.

Kay, Regan's been on my mind a lot for random reasons lately, and when I got the 'Fantasies' Album by Metric, well, she's just not leaving me alone. She also wants the lead singer's outfit.

Metric indeed rocks. If you ever liked Garbage of Republica, Metric's worth a look. I 'discovered' them via the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack, as Metric made the song sung by 'Clash at Demonhead'. Metric's lent music to a pile of other movies too, including Zombieland, and (gag) Vampire diaries, and.. a pile more. TV too. Grey's Anatomy off the top of my head. They're soooOOOoooOOOoo indie mainstream it hurts. So does that sentence. It's okay, they're Canadian.

Anyway, Regan asked me if she should start her own blog, and I told her that was stupid, and that fictional people can't have blogs, so she threw a plastic bowl at me, but apologized repeatedly before the thing came to a stop on the floor. So, as a token of peace, I told her should could post on my blog, as long we didn't confuse anyone. That said, here's Regan:

Hi world! Any of you who heard about those pirates who came to my house- don't worry. I haven't heard a peep from any other jack***es since then, and I ordered some fun stuff to make any future problems.. well, less of a problem. What kind of toys? I'm in international waters, so use your imagination.

I was a little surprised that 'Leesh gave my order such a quick thumbs up, but I think she's still feeling protective or guilty or whatever because she wasn't here to help when it all happened. That said, I have to say I kicked some considerable bumbum. I hadn't seen that much action since Meston. I haven't decided what's worse- zomzomz, or having to put lead into live humans to defend myself.

Whatever, it's over. 'Leesh says she wants me to come with her when she goes mainland to teach from now on. I did when she first started those seminars at Yute Central, but I was un-invited after a couple.. incidents. One weepy 'Leesh later, and now I'm back on the Yute trips. But nowhere near the classroom. Erp. CONFERENCE ROOM, Excuuuuuse me. I bought her a pair of fake glasses and a pointer, so she can be 'hot teacher', but the glasses reminded me of Kris.
Elle. Oh. Elle. Once I stopped laughing, we chucked em out.

Speaking of BitchyMcBitcherson, she's coming over for a weekend later in the month. Her and Parker. It'll be awesome to see him again. But I should resist calling Kris names. IT'S JUST SO MUCH FUN! 'Leesh said I should stop using her as my, 'Token Evil Bisexual Bitch'. Lawl, WHY? We need an icon like my T.E.B.B. to show us the difference between evil bisexuals and good ones!

Hint: The good ones are redheads, and MINE.

VCON 35, 2010- Saturday, part 2- Game room and Cosplayers

As the vendor's hours were wrapping up, Gabe (you know, Gabe, young man seeking his destiny; A quest, an epic quest) and his brother Donn (young man not necessarily seeking any destiny that I knew of) asked if I was going to the gaming room. I DID kind of plan on checking it out, and I had a bit for time before I was expected elsewhere, so ... why not.

Besides.. Donn looked like the type whom one might not like when he became angry.
Or something. I never asked what he was going for with his outfit, and I never asked, hoping that I would clue in on my own eventually. At any rate, once the vendor room was all 'tied down', I headed over, a few doors down.

I used to be pretty heavy into pen&paper RPGs, but I really only ever played a system I made, and to a lesser degree, D&D 2nd edition. I BOUGHT 3rd edition mostly to see what was different, and to gawk at the pretty, pretty pictures. Alas, I don't think anyone plays 2nd edition anymore, and I didn't have time to get into any hardcore questing anyway. The best sessions take at least eight hours, right?

Conveniently, the game that Gabe and Donn had in mind was ... oh frig, I forget, and google isn't helping me.. "Yes my dark lord" or something.. Everyone is a lowly goblin, and the game master is the chief goblin. The game begins as something has been found to have gone wrong. No one knows who's fault it is, and it's the players duty to blame any other player by making up stores based on the clue cards you get. If you're doing a bad job, or speak out of turn or something.. the GM gives you a ... I think it was called a 'disdainful glower' card. If you get three of these cards, you're toast.

Confused? We were too, it was the first time for all of us. Without full understanding, we lept in and began. Soon Gabe and I were blaming each other for all kinds of things, from being a secret evil sorcerer, and screaming like a little girl as our hot air balloon was going down. I have no idea what the original problem was. It was fun. I lost. I'm not even sure how anymore, it didn't matter. I didn't have time for another game, but that didn't stop me from jabbering on anyway.

Yeah, next up was the SFCanada meeting/party in the other building. by now, my sleep deprivation and taurine-based metabolism had me in a pretty silly condition. I think this was when I ran into a handful of random people outside, and being slowed by a crossing car, ended up talking for ten or so minutes about nothing.

Did I mention I was already late? I was invited to this party last year, and couldn't go due to having to commute home after the book launch event. So I was now one year and twenty minutes late. Bear in mind, gentle reader, my memory is akin to a goldfish swimming in beer, so I may have messed up the order of some events.

I got into the other building, on the floor of the SFCanada meeting. Here, I encountered several cosplayers. I think. Know what? Let's take this opportunity to mention some of the cosplayers.

Earlier in the vendor room, I spotted one miss Amelia Pond:

I should have gotten her to pose next to Professor Whovianart. Alas, hindsight. For those not in the know, this is how adult 'Amy Pond' appeared first in the latest incarnation of Dr. Who. She isn't a cop, she's a singing telegram girl, or something. Not a stripper, heavens no, the BBC would not stand for that in a Dr. Who! As it was, many people had their feathers ruffled, in one way or another.

By the way. Knock knock.
Who's there?
Doctor.
Doctor w-
Yeah, that's the cheapest joke I've learned lately. Or maybe this one: Did you hear the 'me neither' joke? No? Me neither.

Yeah, I'm sorry. Now go inflict those jokes upon others. Alright, back to cosplayers... I saw this one guy a lot earlier in a crowd. Just a glance, and I thought, "Geez, I'm not gonna tell him what he looks like... they might be his usual look'. But later I saw him posing up a storm, and I got a good look.

Why yes, it's MATHEW PATEL! RAMONA'S FIRST! EVIL! EX!He had the moves, he had the speech down pat, it was right on. Unfortunately, I didn't get a great shot. If my camera went off when I hit the button, as compared to a second later... oh well.. sorry.

Of course, I had to get a shot of someone from the 501st. For those of you who didn't know, these guys number in the thousands all over north america. They's is big. He had a handful of storm trooper at VCON, at least one Boba Fett, a couple storm trooper variants.. I didn't spot any sith this year though.Someone who dressed inspired by Team Fortress 2:And Ezio from Assassin's Creed 2: (John Guston Klinger won the costume contest; and who dare vote against him? That knife on his wrist really retracted and deployed like the character...!Not that I'm much of a fan of TF2 or AC2, they were just neat costumes. I also got a shot of this girl, who wasn't playing as a character- she just wanted to dress like that. I thought she looked like she could be a character from Scott Pilgrim. The comic.. maybe not the movie.Whew. I think this entry's gone on long enough. Next entry: SFCanada party, and the dance..!

Books inbound, website tweak, and radom rants bout the bat signal, and Regan.

No, Regan doesn't get a bat signal. I have a lot of stupid things to say, but one basic bit of housekeeping to do:

Hardcovers and softcovers are waiting for me at the end of their postage adventure. I expect the hardcovers in my hands this week sometime, and the softcovers on friday. You locals who pre-ordered through me can expect a call/email soon. The rest of the world will (as foretold) have to either order off the net, or hope I have leftovers from my personal supply after VCON at the start of october. I have the first copy of the final thing, and it is purdy.

Oh, and a tweaked the background of the website a little. Now with CABLES. Whee! Might add a little LED trim to them later. We'll see.

Ok, stupid thing #1- The batsignal. Iconic, classic. Stupid. What century are we living in? You're telling me that the easiest way to get a hold of Batman is the same as used by car dealerships to draw attention-deficit customers? Get a ****ing pager, Bruce! Yeah, yeah, it could potentially be traced and reveal his secret identity, but there's gotta be a hack around this crap. Are you telling me that a billionaire who can magically use everyone's cellphones to see everything everywhere, (LAME) is prone to the horrors of *69? (LAMIER)

The only reasonable excuse for the batsignal to still exist is to spook criminals. As Adam West once said to the commissioner, "Criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot."

So... yeah.

Stupid thing #2-
In Lifehack, I refer to Sgt. Parker as a 'puppy', in that he's well-meaning, innocent, and a little clueless at times. And loyal. He got his name originally from a puppy that I was babysitting for a month or so.

And I realized the other day, Parker isn't the puppy in Lifehack, it's Regan. Regan's tenaciously loyal, pretty clueless in a lot of ways, doesn't realize the world isn't all about her, well meaning, and she will metaphorically hump the leg of her chosen love, whether welcome or not. And not always so metaphorically, I suspect. For such a goofy character, she's aged well since Lifehack came out. I guess that's how she's talked me into making little appearances in Watchign Yute and Echoes of Erebus.

Not by humping my leg. She's a lesbian, and I wouldn't feel it anyway.


Stupid thing #3-
Scott Pilgim. Well, not Scott directly, but the kinds of realizations I've come to due to his influence. I've been listening to the movie soundtrack lately, and it's led me to think that Scott Pilgrim vs The World is the kind of movie that the Beatles would be making today.


-If the Beatles were a little less into peace and love, and a little more into punching stuff hard enough to toss them a few blocks away, for no apparent reason. Seriously. It's not even as if being stupidly strong is unusual, (except for vegans and cyborgs), and maybe that's part of SP's charm. The everyman is a superman. Every everyman. As said in an interview with one of the... uh.. was it the director? Edgar Wright.

"...a musical, but instead of people breaking into song when the emotion is too strong, they break out into fights."

-Which works bloody awesome. and the fights aren't even bloody. Sure, they're mad at each other when fists start flying, but there isn't the cruel suffering highlighted in many other action flicks. It's... fun violence. Okay, maybe it over-glamorizes violence, but until girls actually start to pull giant glowing mallets out of their handbags, we might be alright.

And for the record, I think the antagonist could use a movie all on his own. He's got a big backstory that's barely touched in the comic, but would make for a good story to tell.

Ehhh, I've gotten way off track. This week, I wanna be a crappy indie rocker in a crappy apartment downtown. Scott Pilgrim is just another blow, pushing me further along the slowly brewed midlife crisis that got put on the pot when I was 25.

Peace, man.

Scott Pilgrim (And some Echoes news)

Quick update on Echoes of Erebus before I go on about Scott- The trade paperback edition has finally been released here, although it will be a few days before Amazon links of to my Amazon page. Well, Amazon sells it, (For some reason listing it as "Volume 1") but hasn't included it in my author page quite yet. By the time you read this, it may very well be up to speed.

Point is, it's out. All 3 formats now. Now I just have to go into the world and push it! On that note, GO BUY MY BOOKS. See? Superliminal advertising. And people say I don't sell my stuff hard enough. I even increased the font size for that. A little. I wouldn't want to seem rude.

So, Scott Pilgrim, eh? I recently got yo read the 6th book, I bought the game, and yesterday, I saw the movie. Sheep? Me? Naaaaaaahhh. OK, here we go:


The books. (Comic) Classic, to be sure. OK, not that old, but classic anyway. 6th (and final) book is very recent. Cute art, if not A-shelf, still makes the characters endearing for all their faults. Predictably enough, the books have the elbow room to explore the characters a lot more than any other form of Scottiness. Scott himself is a bit of a knob, and his childish ignorance comes at a cost to him at every turn. And he doesn't get it. His plight is just pathetic enough to trigger empathy, moments before he says or does something that reminds you that he is an idiot.

The old indie and video game references seem aimed squarely at generation X. There's websites devoted to digging out every little reference to a game or band, but many of them are right in your face. "Are we an item?" Remona asks.. Scott ponders several Mario items, cluelessly. The name of his band is the Sex Bob-ombs. Rival bands include the "Clash at demonhead" and "Crash and the boyz". If none of these ring any bells... well, you just can't appreciate SP on the levels intended... but it's still good otherwise. You might even get educated about the 80s. Come to think of it...Be afraid.



The game. Did I say 'the 80s'? Yes, I'm pretty sure I did. Strongly STRONGLY inspired by old games from the NES especially, this 2D side scrolling beat-em-up has been compared most directly to "River City Ransom", complete with shops to buy powerups and using enemies as weapons. Your easy-to-preform list of combat moves grows as you level up. I was also reminded of Double Dragon 2. As with the comic, there's a pile of different game references, down to the faux 'glitching' in some areas, and beating up giant blocks for coins. While the game isn't too bogged down in story, (about as much as those old NES games), there's tons of background appearances by other characters from the books. (For the record, the only thing the game has in common with the movie is that they're both based on the comic.)

The game also happens to just PLAY REALLY WELL. It's fun. It plays like you remember those old games playing. Here's a secret.. those old games don't actually play as well as you remember. That's the effect of nostalgia smoothing out the edges. Scott's game smooths out those edges for you. It plays as well as your faulty memory of the past. Bend your brain around that.

The movie-First, the bad. And it's not that bad. The casting of Michael Cera as Scott... well... It's really not what I pictured from the comic. He does a good job, sure. It's just not what I pictured. Same with Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona. It just wasn't what I pictured. Ramona got played much... crabbier than I saw her as in the comics. But by the end of the movie, I just sucked it up and had fun with it.

Of course anyone who's seen the TV ads for the movie know they plunk in some video game/comic special effects. They're there a lot more than the TV ad implies. The comic itself has so many 'commentary' boxes (many of which are pointless) that you really needed 2 scoops of them in the movie. The movie did a TON of things right. Things I missed were simply because... time!

Knives Chau, on the other hand, had more proportional face-time that she did in the comics, and she was painted a bit more heroically. A bit. No one's a full saint in Scott's world, but Knives takes a step closer. Close enough that you wanted to grant all her wishes by the end. But that wouldn't work, now would it?
Oh yeah, the movie, and Knives, DO have their moments of awesome.

------------
For some reason, in every incarnation of Scott Pilgrim- everyone can fight. (Bloodlessly) And they can fight well. Why? How? Who cares. When you get thrown a couple hundred yards against the upper reaches of a castle tower, then fall 5 or so stories, needing only to walk it off, you realize quickly that reality was not invited to this party. And that's okay.

The endings of each of the 3 incarnation are a bit different. One will give you generalized spoilers for all of them, but they all play out differently. The 'set' of the final fight in the game is entirely different that the movie, which fights much differently that in the comic, etc etc. If you liked one, you'll like the other 2 incarnations. (Unless of course, you just hate great games.)

Wow. It's almost as if they planned it that way. ;_;

I'm a sheep. I got em all. I get like this now and then. Last year around this time, I seem to remember getting obsessive over Rammstein. I get into something, and I want to absorb. I guess that's good marketing. Or I'm naturally a sheep

Bryan Lee O'Malley makes it huge with his lil indie comic, Danny LuVisi makes it HUGE with his gorgeous art, with POOF, movie and game deal.... Alright then! MY TURN!