Video game, SciFi DVD and geeky toy deals today

Every now and again I’ll come across a few deals that are just to good to pass up.  I like sharing these things with you all because you get a deal, and if you decided to purchase anything through our links (at no extra cost to you) we get a small bit of cash to help support the site.  Today we have a huge SciFi DVD sale, Prototype, the last of the Star Destroyers and the Kindle 2 for slightly cheaper.

As another aside, when I find individual deals not worthy of a full post, I’ll often tweet them.  Feel free to click the twitter link  over there to the right and follow me.

First it’s the end of an era.  The Lego Star Destroyer looks to be running out of stock.  The Lego store doesn’t have it for sale anymore and as of this writing there are just three extremely expensive Star Destroyers left at Amazon. If this is your thing, buy it now or forever pine for the days of taking in stray blockade runners.  Note though that you can still get the lesser but still cool Lego 6211 Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer for a mere $199.99.

If you’ve heard of the new game Prototype you’re probably interested in a 33% savings for the Xbox or PS3 version and a 40% savings on the PC version.  I hear it’s not bad.

There is a vast SciFi DVD sale going on right now where you can save up to 56% on hundreds of titles, both standard DVD and Blu-Ray.

More specifically in the SciFi arena, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Complete Series (Seasons 1-7) is 51% off.  It’s $254.99 where it would normally cost $519.99.

Lastly, the Kindle 2 has dropped to $299.99.  Wonder of wonders, it’s even in stock right now.

[tags]deals[/tags]

Pleasure

Your touch so soft,
The sound you make a gentle prelude to thunder.
Turning and twisting you rub yourself against me.
Lips curled in a permanent smile,
Back arched in a languid stretch.

Do you think of me,
When I do not touch you?  Do not drive
You into frenzied states of pleasure?
Rolling on the floor, mouth agape.
Sleeping silently after, smiling.

I often wonder,
As I bend to my inevitable task,
Would you love me if I did not feed your needs?
Then I smile, reminded of your face,
As I change your litter box.

[tags]pleasure, poetry, meow[/tags]

Just to confirm, Nathan Fillion is freaking awesome

This man not only plays the straight-funny man in movies and certain singing blogs, but he’s damned funny in his own right as well.  If you don’t believe me check him out on Twitter or (sadly) MySpace.

From his MySpace page: The most important thing about me is that I really am me. I’m not some weirdo, sitting at home, thinking I’m great for fooling people on the internet. BTW, if you are going to pretend to be somebody, pick someone cooler than me, like Christian Bale or something.

Or from Twitter:

Rock on Nathan, rock on.

[tags]nathan fillion, awesome, movies and television[/tags]

Hollywood and the (in)accurate portrayal of medieval life

Let’s take a brief look at medieval times in the movies and a few films I feel have gotten some stuff right.  Here we’ll toy with the definition of Medieval quite a bit and perhaps replace it entirely by the time this ramble is through. I’m talking about those movies that not only grip you in their poetic throes, but do so with realistic costumes and historical accuracy. They’re few and far between as no film is completely historically accurate and no picture of history is absolutely complete. Also, people won’t sit for twenty minutes while King Richard II treats us to a Medieval French monologue while in the garderobe.

Did you know that some garderobes (a fancy name for a literal crap-hole carved into the stone over a longish drop to the bottom of a castle) featured iron bars just below sitting level?  Their purpose?  To discourage enemies from clambering up said crap holes for easy access to the current occupants.

We’re hampered a bit by the fact that Hollywood (and independent films) are more interested in reaching an audience then they are in historical accuracy. This isn’t really a bad thing when you think of the purpose of movies after all, these aren’t documentaries. It does mean that most movies won’t paint a historically accurate picture unless there is a sound artistic or monetary reason to do so.

Our first candidate is a movie that came from the 90s, and stars the now slightly wonky Mel Gibson. Braveheart is in one sense the quintessential medieval movie. It’s got star power, it’s got Scot power, it’s got a gritty feel about it.  Speaking as a partial Scotsman myself, I am not surprised.  We come to empathize with the Scots over the English because the English are just evil. Bad, naughty English!

But that’s not why I like it. I like it for the chaotic, extremely well choreographed and bloody battle scenes. Never before this movie had I seen an on screen battle depicted in a way that historical and archaeological records hold as true. Battle was a maddening, frenzied, bloody experience that could well get you killed. This movie is why I gave up any of my last pretenses of building a time machine and hopping back seven or eight centuries.  That and modern dentistry.

Braveheart as historical record jumps about quite a bit, stripping out decade wide swaths between major battles and giving historical credence to events which are most likely made up.  Which brings us to my next pick, although it takes place beyond what I would consider the medieval period, it’s still one of the more historically accurate films I’ve seen yet.

Rob Roy also takes place in Scotland. Released around the same time as Braveheart, it doesn’t feature any sweeping battles but does have a very accurate time line in place. Beyond that however, everything jives right. The costumes, the attitudes, the division between commoner and Scottish nobility which is at times a wide gulf and at others just a piss-pot away. I believe that Rob Roy captures much of what a seventeenth century Scot’s life would have been like, albeit a famous Scot who got into much more than a simple farm or a trade.  Again a film about Scotland and those who call it home and grittiness.  There’s something about the history and legends that have come out of that land that are appealing.

Let’s leave Scotland for a bit and go on to a movie that, while decidedly English was actually filmed in Scotland. For this movie, we’re going to throw accuracy out the window, allow props and costumes that are so far from the reality of the times that they may as well be jeans and wristwatches. We’re delving now into a myth that makes up so much of the medieval English psyche that it can’t be Ignored. And a group of film makers who spent a great deal of time and energy researching this myth, so much so that when they make light of it, they get everything right. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is an absolute must for any medievalist.

Even if you’re not a Python fan or just don’t get that British humor, you owe it to yourself to see this film if you’re at all interested in Arthurian myth. The foundations of English, Welsh and French world views can all be dug out from this script.

The Pythons have gotten everything right in this. A perilous quest, inspired by god, involving fools who must mature and live through countless otherworldly tests and threats. Finally our heroes acquire the ultimate quest object, the Holy Grail, only to have it snatched away from them again in the end. The grail is timeless, and not likely to be available to mere mortals for any length of time.

The Holy Grail makes lampooning these cornerstones of the mythical universe seem effortless, when in fact if you’ve read extensively on the subject, you’ll find they’ve incorporated every major element of Arthurian myth into their tale and many minor ones as well. They’ve done it so well that the unaware public has no idea they’ve just received an extensive education in Arthurian myth.  Plus you get to see a young man dressed as an old woman beating a cat against the side of a wattle and daub hut. Now that is film making.

There are many other films that deal with the medieval subject, many of which are pure Hollywood drivel which may be fun for a night out or a night on the couch but don’t do much to satisfy my need for a wonderfully accurate movie. A few others that I will mention in brief:

The Name of the Rose: Umberto Eco strikes again, this time with the movie created from his novel of the same name. Here we have an accurate microcosm of the medieval world recreated for us. According to Mr. Slater, he lost his virginity on film in this move. Worth the watch for everything but that but more worth the read.

The Kingdom of Heaven : Ah, the crusades. Love them or hate them, they’ll always be the subject of films. This movie may not be a great movie in its own right, they’ve gotten the costumes spot on, as well as the locations. They’ve also done a half-decent job of showing the Muslim populations of the middle east at that time as not savages but as an educated (far better than their western counterparts) people who did much to advance western science. Saladin is portrayed not as an evil villain, but as a leader in both the military and social sense. In this, Kingdom of Heaven does a good job.

Excalibur: What can I say about this film. Accurate? Absolutely not. Epic? Hell Yeah. It’s the first (and hopefully the last) time I’ve ever watched a sex scene where at least one of the   participants is in full armor. For all it’s faults however, it is a great retelling of the Arthurian myth. It’s got the grand scale that I suspect many a medieval mind felt when reading the works on  Arthur in their own time and for this alone is worth watching.  Add to that about seven hundred pounds of aluminum armor, epic battles, the best played Merlin ever and Captain Picard.  Now you’ve got one hell of a mess but it’s pretty to watch and fun.

Coupled with the books I’ve recommended in an earlier article, these items are sure to get you into the proper mindset for such enjoyable tasks as being repressed, getting stoop backed hoeing crops or longing for the day when you can get bled before you die of the plague.

[tags]medieval, movies, film, arthurian myth, python, monty, excaliber, braveheart, rob roy[/tags]

04:05:06 07/08/09

As of the publishing of this article, the time on the East Coast is now 04:05:06 and the date is 07/08/09.  This won’t happen again for quite some time, unles you format your dates in the more elegant European style, with month/day/year rather than day/month/year.  If you do that, this will happen again at 04:05:06 on August 7th, 2009 (07/08/09).

[tags]4,5,6,7,8,9[/tags]

How to create a vampire short film – Tex: Vampire Hunter, the interviews

Previously I wrote  a bit about a new short coming our way soon.  Tex: Vampire Hunter or Make Thick My Blood: A Tragedy in One Act. I caught up with Gabriel, the man responsible for the movie and had a chance to talk briefly about this freaking awesome vampire western.  Gabriel started his project through the Seattle Film Institute but it seems to have taking on a life of it’s own and grown a bit bigger than a final project.  Now it’s a full fledged, hand-carved wooden bullet vampire slay fest.

Tex is a gunslinger in the old west who has dedicated his life to hunting down and killing vampires. His travels bring him to a brothel used by vampires as a front to lure their victims. This evil bordello also happens to be run by his ex-lover, a beautiful vampire named Elisabeta. Tex is haunted by his past, but will he be able to discover the dark secret that binds him to his prey, or will his righteous rage blind him?

TC: From conception of this film to today, how much time have you invested in it?  How many hours a day go into creating a film?

Gabriel: It’s been months of work, not just by me, but by the entire crew.  My Assistant Director and Cinematographer were incredibly dedicated. We met together for  hours every day for weeks during pre-production, storyboarding and planning all the shots.  Shooting is the more fun and glamorous part, but it can be tiring too.  We put in some 14-hour days.  But you can only justify making people work that hard if you have everything very well planned. I’m sure if you calculated the actual man-hours it would be well into the thousands.

TC: What do you expect the running time of the finished film will be?

Gabriel: We’re in the midst of the editing process as I type this, so it’s not known for sure yet, but I’m hoping to get it down to 10 minutes.  The problem with most short films is they’re too long.

TC: Once this film is finished, where can people like me go to see it?

Gabriel: I’m submitting it to festivals all around the country.  Hopefully there’ll be one near you.

TC: Are you basing your vampires on the body of mythology available or have you had first hand encounters with actual living dead beings?  You won’t end up in my convertible on night like Tom Cruise in Interview with a Vampire, right?

Gabriel: They’re a combination of traditional vampires and my ex-girlfriends.

TC: From the photos I’ve seen it looks like there are some pretty interesting ways to off vampires.  How many vampires bite it in your film?  Do you have a favorite method?

Gabriel: Over the course of the film, the world population of vampires is reduced by nine.  Most of them are killed by Tex’s hand-carved wooden bullets.  One catches a ricochet bullet deflected by a sword.  One is done in by the traditional mallet and stake.  One gets a stake pounded in by the butt of Tex’s gun. And one is crippled by a sword and then finished off with a wooden bullet, which is my personal favorite because it’s the most gruesome.  It was really fun developing that scene.  The stunt coordinator and I are holding Jen Page by the arms and legs and we drop her onto the sword, then we cut to a close up of a false corset back with a blood packet, which we stab, with a satisfying burst of blood, and finally we have a half-sword welded to a plate that we slipped under the corset, with the blade sticking out.  Movie magic!  Of course Jen really sells it with her awesome gasping and writhing.

TC: Can you tell me a bit on how you came to direct this film?  How are you connected to movie production in general and the SFI specifically?

Gabriel: I’m a student at SFI.  Tex is one of the final projects of the program.  That’s how it started out anyway.  It quickly became a much larger beast, as more people heard about it and wanted to help out.  That’s how we got our makeup people, our wardrobe lady, our fang maker, our fight choreographer and stunt guy.  People heard about it and loved the script and wanted to be involved.

TC: Between cast and crew, how big is your production?

Gabriel: Something like 30 people contributed in some capacity.

TC: Do you have any advice for would-be vampire slayers?  Tips on what weapons to use, diet, training and wardrobe would be very helpful.

Gabriel: Vampire hunting should only be undertaken by trained, experienced professionals.  I would recommend aspiring hunters to participate in an apprentice program of some sort, where they can get hands-on training and guidance from a mentor.  If you’re foolish enough to try it on your own, I’d suggest the traditional method of tracking the vampire to its daytime resting spot and stabbing it through the heart with a stake while it sleeps.  It’s more cowardly but has a greater chance of success.  Not everybody can be as badass as Tex.  People get hurt trying.

TC: Who are your influences when it comes to film making and script writing?

Gabriel: Oh damn.  This is a hard question.  Once you start listing influences, people expect you to be as good as them, or start looking for evidence of it in your work.  I admire, but do not pretend to emulate or equal, the “film school” class of directors from the ’70s: Scorsese, Coppola, Kubrick.  And I’m also really attracted to the intensely personal nature of movies by younger directors like Paul Thomas Anderson and Darren Aronofsky.

TC: Once Tex is done and behind you, what’s next?

Gabriel: My next project will probably be a music video for the Seattle band Throw Me the Statue.  Long term, I want to use the Tex short to pitch the feature length version.  And then I have a few other feature length screenplays written and ready to be made, but I think Tex will be an easier sell.  The basic idea is to get people to trust me with millions of dollars, and then make a movie.

Ouch.

Let’s not forget that the perennially peasant swatting, beast shirking scifi maven Jen Page will be here for the fun as well.  And finally, because I like this image so much, here’s a bloody sword sticking out the back of Jen’s corset, sans Jen I hope.

Stabby

[tags]tex vampire hunter, jen page, vampires, movies,interview[/tags]

Zombie Short Film Festival (ZSFF) of Toronto now accepting submissions, brains.

It seems I just got finished talking about one zombie short and now we’re going to be mobbed by lots more.  Like a horde of the flesh eating, living dead it’s the Zombie Short Film Festival!  Going out for a night of flesh eating undead shorts, followed by drinking and taking place in the mighty city of Toronto.  I dare you to find something better to do with your time.

It will cost $20 Canadian to enter your film, where it will be viewed by a jury of 4 living people.  Those films that get selected will appear in the festival and be eligable for a prize, plus the awarding of the soon to be coveted Zomb-D’Or.

The Zombie Short Film Festival is the brain-child of Jim Taylor and Cory Laffin, two dudes who live in Toronto. We are hoping to hold it at the Revue Cinema, on Roncesvalles Avenue, in Toronto. Our target date is Friday, October 30th.  I talked with Jim Taylor not to long ago and got the skinny on what is going on.  There are still some details that need to be put together but it looks like this is coming along nicely!

The ZSFF if accepting submissions, most likely in DVD format, up until October 1st of this year.    If you are a filmmaker, an aspiring filmmaker, or a friend or loved one to a filmmaker, please tell them about our festival! We are accepting any and all submissions at this point, from any place.

The criteria is as follows:

1. It must be a short film with a maximum running time of 20 minutes.
2. It must involve zombies.

If you are interested in making a submission, have any questions, or wish to volunteer your time and/or services to this noble film festival, please contact us at zombieshortfilmfestival@gmail.com.

I had a few questions for the guys organizing this and here’s what Jim had to say.

TC: What prompted you to start a zombie themed short film festival?

Jim: Like you, Cory and I also have a lasting love affair with zombies in film.  We were discussing this over beers in my kitchen, one night, when the subject turned to zombie short films we saw or worked on.  That’s when it occurred to us that pretty much every film maker we know has made a zombie short film…and there was no zombie short film festival to show them.  So we decided to fill the niche.

TC: How many films do you expect to have entered?

Jim: Well, from the looks of things…hundreds!  I put up a website and a twitter account about a week ago, and the thing is kind of exploding.  The plan is to have a jury adjudicate each entry, and then we’ll screen the finalists at the theatre on Oct. 30.  The audience will have a chance to vote for their favorites, and then the winner will be announced at the gala.

TC: What venue(s) will they be playing at?

Jim: I’m hoping it will be the Revue Cinema, on Roncesvalles Ave.  I’m still in talks with them, though, so nothing’s official.

TC: Have either of you ever lived through a zombie uprising?  If so, any tips?

Jim: So far I’ve been lucky, but I’m one of those people that always thinks about zombie attacks, and how to best survive them.  When you’ve had as many boring jobs as I’ve had, it can be pretty amusing to come up with contingency plans for when the undead rise to feast on the living.  I think the best thing to do, should it happen, is stock up on food, get to the highest point you can, and always carry a crowbar.

TC: Any recommendations on food, lodging and parking for the festival?

Jim: If everything goes the way I hope, and we get the Revue Cinema, the public will have no shortage of great restaurants and places to stay.  Roncesvalles Ave. has tons of each.  It’s the best street in Toronto!

TC: Will there be any actual zombies present?

Jim: How could I call it a Zombie Short Film Festival is there wasn’t?

If you’re going to be anywhere near Toronto on October 30th, this sounds like a sure bet for an amazing time.

[tags]zombies, short film festival, toronto, movies[/tags]

Photo credit: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

Demon's Souls for the PS3 now native to the US – with a special addition!

Not to long ago our very own Ken wrote a very detailed and positive review of the Japanese game Demon’s Souls for the PS3.    The game is a ground breaking RPG which fans have had to import at their own cost from Japan.  Until now!  Atlus games is releasing a native US version of the game with brand new box art.  On top of that, they’re doing a special edition which will cost a bit less than what it took to import the game from Japan or buy it from a specialty shop.

Demon’s Souls Special Edition will come with a special 150 page strategy guide only available with the special edition, and a collectible slip cover.    Demon’s Souls is scheduled for North American release on October 6, 2009. The standard version will retail with an MSRP of $59.99, and the deluxe edition with an MSRP of $69.99. Pre-orders for the deluxe edition are scheduled to begin on Wednesday, July 8th.   You can pre-order it at the official site.

Here’s the official press release:

Atlus U.S.A., Inc. today revealed that Demon’s Souls™, a groundbreaking action RPG experience for PLAYSTATION®3 system, is to become the newest entry in the Atlus Spoils fan appreciation program. In addition to the standard version of the game, which now features new North-American exclusive box art, there will also be a deluxe edition. For less than it costs to import the game, fans will receive a 150+ page strategy guide (only available as part of this deluxe version, not for sale anywhere else) and a collectible outer slipcase, in addition to the game itself.

Moreover, fans who pre-order either version will receive a free bonus art book with designs and concept sketches from the world of Demon’s Souls (only at participating retailers, while supplies last).

“Atlus Spoils is all about giving back to our fans and thanking them for their support, and we’re excited to be able to do something very special for Demon’s Souls,” stated Tim Pivnicny, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Atlus. “On October 6th, PLAYSTATION 3 system owners will be treated to the definitive release of what many consider to be the most innovative action RPG in recent memory. With both the standard and deluxe versions of the game accompanied by irresistible North American exclusives, like a special pre-order bonus art book, we hope this is an offer patient Demon’s Souls fans will be hard-pressed to resist.”

About Demon’s Souls
King Allant the XII, the last king of Boletaria, searched tirelessly to expand his might. The Nexus, a great ice shrine nestled in the mountains, bestowed the power of the souls onto him, bringing prosperity to his kingdom. Still unsated, he returned again to the Nexus, where he foolishly awakened the Old One from its eternal slumber. This long forgotten evil, now wrought upon Boletaria, plunged the realm into darkness and fog. A mighty demon horde poured into the kingdom, devouring the souls of men.

Champions from other realms learned of Boletaria’s fate and sought to deliver the kingdom from evil; none would return from the cursed land. Called upon by a mysterious maiden in black, you go forth, the last hope for humanity in a place lost to demons and darkness…

Key Features

• Ultimate hardcore RPG challenge – In this brutal land, death is inevitable, but not final. Combining the best features of an action game and RPG, you’ll slice, smash, shoot, and ensorcel some of the most horrible, vicious enemies ever encountered. Are you strong enough to face the impossible and win?
• Groundbreaking online capabilities – Network features go far beyond any previous RPG, allowing players to leave hints for each other, replay death scenes, cooperatively revive dead players, or invade another player’s game to wreak havoc. Not merely an add-on feature, multiplayer options are vast, and uniquely focused on changing and intensifying the single player experience.
• Freeform and flexible – The open-ended structure of the game means that there is no single path, but rather a wealth of options. Set your own pace and progress as you like. Build exactly the character you want by creating a detailed avatar, nurturing the right stats, and customizing your skills and equipment.
• You act, the world reacts – The World Tendency system changes the aggressiveness of monsters and the rewards for killing them based on players’ actions. Different events and NPCs may be triggered, as well.

[tags]demon’s souls, atlus spoils, rpg, video game, ps3, gnarly[/tags]

Getting a grasp on the historical medieval mindset through fiction. Even fiction with space ships.

My latest ramblings, in which we go on a journey from Snowy New Hampshire to stark Medievalville, passing through the far future on the way.  Hopefully we’ll be ending up with a clearer understanding of what it is to think like a 14th century person.

After graduating high school, and floating around between New England and Texas in a series of low-level retail management positions, I had decided to get my 19 year old ass into a college somewhere. Any college, anywhere.

I reasoned that having a college degree and spending the time to get it was far better than wearing a Sam Goody name tag for the rest of my working days.

Thus, I sent away for a bunch of college catalogs and having received them, stared with despair at the prospect of starting a business program, or perhaps doing a degree in psychology where I could put aside my problems and help others overcome theirs.

One program that I caught on a side glance looked a bit more promising however. There was a smallish college in middle New Hampshire which offered a degree in Medieval Studies. I was a heavily into fantasy novels and playing Dungeons & Dragons and this immediately appealed to me. I could go to college, get a degree and spend four years immersed in the 5th through 15th centuries? Really? Wow.

It’s been fifteen years since that day, and I never did get a degree in Medieval Studies.  My actual BA is in Interdisciplinary Studies – a sort of design your own thing.  The official and overly lengthy title is: Anthropology and the Study of Medieval Europe.  Yup, throw that baby on a resume and watch the offers fly.

Needless to say, it did not get me in good with Mr. Trump but it was a damn good four years! What I did encounter though was a massive body of history, myth, legend and literature which to this day I am extremely glad I had to wade through. Make no bones about it, some of this stuff you do have to literally wade through. It’s worth it to come away with a huge picture of how Western society was carved into being, splinter by splinter.

One of the best places to start is with fiction. Yes, I’m quite serious. There’s a wonderful book by Italian semiologist, Umberto Eco called Baudolino. If you’re wondering what it would have been like to dwell in the head of a Medieval man, this book is for you. Eco’s nailed the thinking process, the unabashed belief in wondrous ideas as truth, the constant conflict with Christianity at once being the savior of mankind and also the greatest limiting factor to development of the individual. Unlike many of his other (excellent) books, Baudolino doesn’t require a study guide to get through.

Now that you’ve got something of an idea of what it’s like to inhabit a medieval mind, let’s move to some more fiction, this time however it is written as history, and was constructed in the 15th century. The ever popular Le Morte D’Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory. Written while Mallory was imprisoned, this sweeping saga incorporates many of what we’ve come to think of as the Arthurian Legends. Lancelot joins the crew from France along with Merlin (the Welsh, Mryydion) and of course Arthur and Guinevere and all the rest of the gang. Malory has done what most medieval Arthurists do, which is to contemporize the players in his drama to his own age. The 5th century Arthur – who we can trace to a quasi-mythical figure in England or Wales who united the various warlords to repel the Saxon threat after the Roman legions took their flags and went home has now become the plate wearing, jousting and chivalrous hero we’ve latched on to in our own century.  Now though we’ve added a soundtrack and a big summer opening.

Merlin has been transformed from an early Druidic figure to an elderly man with magical powers in the face of Christianity. And Lancelot the French Knight has been drawn into things to satisfy the medieval need for Chivalry and the code of love. In the medieval world, It’s great to be married, but marriage is political and love is not, thus is born courtly love.  It’s forbidden, but expected that at least one of the people in a married relationship fall for someone else. Gone are the days of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight where giants are conquered.  Now it’s all sex and power, which is why it’s become attractive to us as a modern society.

I wouldn’t recommend reading the complete works at first, as it contains many a list of well, lists.  Such things as tournament rosters, which might just bore your teeth right out of your mouth. If you skip those bits however and follow the human story, you’ll be blown away. If you’d like a further hint before reading it, keep in mind that 90% of this book deals with Arthur’s life, yet the title is The Death of Arthur. (Nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

Now that you’ve been with Arthur and Baudolino, let’s hook up with Chaucer. When I first started a class on the Canturbury Tales, I was prepared to be a bit bored. We were reading it in the original Middle English (which isn’t as hard as it sounds with a good edition) and I was prepared to spend lots of time looking up words.

What I wasn’t prepared for was sex, violence, political commentary and the foundations of modern English fiction. Yikes! Geoffrey doesn’t pull any punches in his tales, and I’m sure there’s a long history of medieval lads and lasses tittering behind closed doors with a group of their peers, as a sort of predecessor to American Pie  on cable and teenage boys staying up past their bedtime.  Chaucer was raunchy, funny and very human in telling his tales.  For this alone he’s worth reading but his insights into the 14^th century mind are invaluable if you’d like to think like someone extent at that time.

Now that we’ve got the violence, sex and love triangles out of the way it’s time to get anachronistic with two more modern works of literature which are on my must-read-to-be-a-medievalist-list. The first is T.H. White’s The Once and Future King.

I first read this book when I was about 16 and it blew me away. It’s horribly anachronistic, having Merlin travel to Bermuda and many other such instances but at the same time it’s wonderfully endearing. This is the first time that I ever really felt for Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot. I felt their pain in loving each other as friends and the forbidden love that could not be. The book ends with one of the most poignant moments in Medieval fiction I’ve yet to read. You may be interested to note that the book is divided into a series of shorter ‘books’, the first of which is the basis for Disney’s The Sword in the Stone.

The last bit of literature I’ll be rambling on about today is a series of four books by one of my favorite speculative fiction authors, Dan Simmons.

The Hyperion series may at first strike you as having nothing whatever to do with the Medieval period at all until you realize that it’s an amazingly written retelling of good old Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Simmons is really something as a storyteller, taking the lives of people who exist in a fictional far future and making them as human and honest as the person next to you. What has this to do with the medieval mind? At heart it’s still a story of those of us who are lost seeking some sort of truth through a journey that is both physical and spiritual.  It’s a pilgrimage that’s being undertaken by a group of people who’s motivations have not changed since Chaucer was chewing on his quills.

I hope you’ll find these books interesting. I know that I did, in fact they form a solid literary foundation for me when I try to get into the mind of a medieval person. It’s an interesting place to be.

If you’d like to purchase any of the above titles, you can grab them at Amazon and also help support this site.  Here are the volumes I recommend.  All but the Canterbury Tales are fairly inexpensive.  Chaucer’s works deserve a good edition.

Baudolino Le Morte d’Arthur The Complete Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer The Once and Future King Hyperion Saga

[tags]medieval, canterbury tales, hyperion, arthurian legend, literature, baudolino[/tags]

Happy 4th of July

To those who hark from or to the USA, happy Independence Day!  To those who don’t, happy 4th of July!  To celebrate, here’s a picture of a Bald Eagle taken on my Canon Rebel about 4 days ago.   From Wikipedia:

The Bald Eagle is the national bird of the United States of America. It is one of the country’s most recognizable symbols, and appears on most of its official seals, including the Seal of the President of the United States.

The Continental Congress adopted the current design for the Great Seal of the United States including a Bald Eagle grasping thirteen arrows and a thirteen-leaf olive branch with its talons on June 20, 1782.

After the end of the Revolutionary War, Benjamin Franklin wrote a famous letter from Paris in 1784, to his daughter, criticizing the choice and suggesting the Wild Turkey as a better representative of American qualities. He described the Bald Eagle as “a Bird of bad moral character,” who, “too lazy to fish for himself” survived by robbing the Osprey. He called the Bald Eagle “a rank Coward” easily driven from a perch by the much smaller kingbird. In the letter, Franklin wrote the Turkey is, “a much more respectable Bird,” which he described as “a little vain & silly [but] a Bird of Courage.”

The Bald Eagle remained the emblem of the United States. It can be found on both national seals and on the back of several coins (including the quarter dollar coin until 1999), with its head oriented towards the olive branch. Between 1916 and 1945, the Presidential Flag showed an eagle facing to its left (the viewer’s right), which gave rise to the urban legend that the seal is changed to have the eagle face towards the olive branch in peace, and towards the arrows in wartime.

I’ll be spending time with my family this weekend.  You enjoy the holiday safely.

[tags]ben[/tags]

Star Trek's Star Fleet Battles – Published in 1979 by Task Force Games. Purchased by me for a buck at a library

The Challenge of Starship Command: out-thinking, outshooting, and out maneuvering your opponent in a warp speed dogfight.  Your crew lives or dies on your skill and cunning, asyou turn to bring your strongest shields and most powerful weapons toward your enemy – an enemy that might be another Starship, a massive robot Berserker or an alien being that dwarfs even your massive ship.

At least, that’s what the back of the box says.

I fell in love with boxed strategy and RPG games when I was about 12, which was not too long after this game was first published.  I had a decent collection of games that featured 2D folded paper maps, card board tiles that you punched out of the original sheet and then hoped to god you didn’t lose and complicated rules.  Also generally featured were damage sheets, reference manuals (purchased seperately of course) and the wide world of house rules.  Car Wars, Battle Tech, Panzer Brigade and more.

One game that always eluded me though was Star Fleet Battles.  A friend one town over had the game and refused to play it as he wasn’t a big fan of strategy games.  He had purchased it only to save it as a collectors item.  Even though I wasn’t a huge Star Trek fan, I longed to take control of my own federation ship and match wits with some other kid who also longed for the same.

A few weeks ago, I was wading through a local library book store with my family and what did I spy?  The Deluxe edition of Star Fleet Battles!

Note: Click the images for larger versions.

I couldn’t belive my eyes.  I mean, we had arrived at the sale a few hours after it started, going on a whim and here was this gem, just sitting there on a table.  I scooped it and another game (more on that one later) into my loving arms and went in search of a volunteer to ask how much it was.

The clerk thought for a bit and then said “well, the games are a dollar each.  So two dollars for both games.”  Two dollars!  Talk about random geek findings heaven!  I flipped the box over, saw the 1979 copyright date, dug into my pocket and placed two crumpled dollar bills on the table.

I know that this isn’t like finding an early edition of some major comic book at a yard sale.  I doubt anyone else at the sale even realized how old the game was or how much I wanted it.  Still, it was such a cool find I could not keep myself from glancing around.  Somewhere, there was a grown up person who had been a 12 year old kid in possession of this game and it had ended up donated to a libary book sale.

I ogled the back a bit more.

• Over 200 multi-colored full thickness die-cut counters that represent the ships of seven fleets.  Full thickness!
• a 20 x 24 inch tactical map.
• Comprehensive rules of play.  They weren’t kidding either.
• Easy to use game charts and displays that reduce the complexities of space combat.

With my kids safely ensconced in the childrens section, I sat down beside them and gently opened the box to see what I would find.  I got a lot more than I bargained for!

The first thing I saw in the box was a copy of “What’s Hot” magazine, Issue 8 published July 1989, featuring a look inside Star Trek V.  What’ s Hot was published quarterly by General Foods corporation.  As such, it contained a lot of ads for the company’s products.  Things like Kraft Cheese and Kool-Aid.  I occasionally came across these magazines in my  youth and this one was in pristine condition!  not only did it feature Star Trek V, but it had a pull out poster commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 1st man on the moon, along with the send away insert that came with the original magazine.

Whoever put these things in this box, they did so and then never touched them again.  Everything inside was in near mint condition.  The box itself showed a little bending and some scratches and scuffs but not much else.

Under that were two other little gems.  The first was Star Trek: The Next Generation magazine, from June of 1989.  Cool!  The magazine features blueprints and designes from the show, detailed summaries with pictures of three episodes, one of four collectible posters (still stapled into the magazine like the day it was published), interviews and a bunch more.  It was a kick just looking at the ads!

Also included was the Star Trek Ship Recognition Manual: The Klingon Empire (1983) by Fasa.  They not only handled the tactical side of Star Trek for many gamers, but also published Battletech and Mechwarrior among many others.  Clearly I had stumbled on some small part of a Trek fan’s collection.

Remember those easy to use game charts and displays, as well as the “Over 200 multi-colored full thickness die-cut counters that represent the ships of seven fleets”?  These things were all in the box, and they weren’t even touched. No die-cut counters were punched, no old pencil marks or eraser stains on the sheets, the map itself was beautifully folded.  Clearly this game had never even been played.  The light blue manual was uncreased and in wonderful condition.

That moment of digging through this box in a libarary store room with my kids next to me and the smell of a 30 year old game wafting up – it was for that moment like being 12 again and prying open a brand new game for the first time.  Above you can see some of the ship’s detailed out in ‘damage blocks’ that can be colored in as the shields fail and physical damage occurs.  Also the rules book, the un-punched die-cuts and the folded map.

At the bottom of the box I found two sixes, two unopened ziploc style baggies for the die cut counters and a “MASTER SHIP CHART — COMMANDER’S STAR FLEET BATTLES”.

This was done up on beautiful, old style perforated dot-matrix printer paper with the spooly bits torn off the sides.  I don’t believe this was native to the game itself.  I know that this game was later released as a computer game as well.  I’m wondering if this is either a hand made chart that someone put a lot of time and effort into compiling or a print-out from the later released computer game.

The board game archaeologist in me can’t help but wonder what happened to this game between 1979 and 1989.  Someon purchased it and never played it.  Then a few other Star Trek collectibles were deposited in the game box between ’83 and ’89.  It’s my guess that after 1989 the box wasn’t opened again. Then perhaps someone’s Mom, getting on in years and cleaning up the place decided to donate it to a libarary book sale 30 years after it was first published.   That’s quite a journey.

Will I play it now that I have it?  Probably not.  The game is now safely ensconced on my book shelf.  I did spend some time paging through the rules though.  I’m older and I have a lot less time on my hands.  I also now see the value of keeping something like this for the sheer nostalgia value.  And my cats would probably eat the die-cut counters.

[tags]star trek, star fleet battles, board games, geek heaven[/tags]

Fullmetal Alchemist on iTunes + A Brand New Anime

It’s a great week to be a Fullmetal Alchemist fan.  As of June 30^th the first 26 episodes of the fantastically popular anime are available on iTunes for only $38.99, or $1.99 per episode, with the rest to follow I’m sure.  I am actually kind of envious really.  I bought the series as 13 separate discs: Even buying some used, costing me between 10 and 20 dollars apiece… let’s just say it was way more than I should have paid for any piece of entertainment, even if it is the second best thing out of Japan in years. (I’m sorry, FMA is superb, but Miyazaki’s work is the best there is, he’s a master)  Heck, if I had the money I’d buy it again, just to have it on my computer and iPod.

There is one other stupendous bit of news about FMA, one I wish I’d heard about earlier.   A brand new anime entitled Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood in English began airing in Japan back in the beginning of April.  It airs weekly, with episode 13 airing the 28^th of June. They even got the same actors portraying Ed and Al.  Amazingly they have been streaming the episodes in their entirely with subtitles on FUNimation’s website just a few days after each airs.  Right now it seems they are having some technical difficulties with the site, the following message appears:

NOTICE: This site is undergoing maintenance operations. Please pardon any service interruptions.
This message will be removed when we are complete. Thank you for your understanding. –FUNimation

I’ve tried a number of times to watch the most recent episodes, but it glitches every time.  Luckily there is another way to see them legitimately, as they are also posting the episodes on You Tube here.  The list only shows episodes 1-8, but 9 and 10 are up as well.

So why make a new series?  The original anime has been criticized (stupidly) for following the manga for only the first half of its run.  After that an entirely different main antagonist and plot progression occurs.  I say it is a stupid complaint for the simple reason that at the halfway point of the show they had covered everything thus printed in the manga.  (It is in fact ongoing; book 18 in English just hit my library shelves this week)  This new show is going to follow the manga more closely, at a faster pace.  Episode 10 of Brotherhood covers much of the same events of episode 25 of the original.  This is simply because with so much more of the manga to draw from and adapt for the show a lot of the side-stories simply can’t be fitted in.  Aside from continuity issues, a lot of things have been improved with this version.  It feels more mature somehow; surer of what the story is about.

The music is excellent as always, and I will definitely be looking for the opening and closing themes on iTunes, or baring that a soundtrack.  The story telling has improved dramatically as well, saying more with less time and better evoking emotions.  For example the flashback showing their disastrous attempt at resurrection is far creepier and scarier than the first time around.  I’m not sure what their plan for ending it is, for obvious reasons, but I am excited to find out.

For those unfortunates unfamiliar with the anime/manga that is Fullmetal, I shall endeavor to explain its awesomeness. (As best I can without spoilers anyway) Fullmetal Alchemist is set in early 1900’s Europe, but not as we know it.  Much of the central continent (Roundabouts Germany) is part of the country Amestris, a military dictatorship coming out of a massive expansionist phase.  Technology is much the same as the real world, with one huge exception.  Alchemy is the most advanced and powerful science of the world, able to reshape matter in radical ways.  There are limits though, the main one being the law of Equivalent Exchange, basically that in order to gain anything, something of equal value must be lost.  In other words you can turn a wall into a door, or make a knife from a steel pipe, but not shrink a house or make a mouse the size of a lion.  The other big taboo is human transmutation, using alchemy on a living person.  That is strictly forbidden.

This is where we meet the protagonists, Edward and Alphonse Elric.  As young boys they studied alchemy from books left behind by the father who had abandoned them and their mother.  When she dies of an illness they decide, grief stricken, to bring her back.  It doesn’t go well.  Not only was their experiment a complete failure, but Edward loses his leg, and Al’s body entirely disappears.  In an act of desperation Edward sacrifices his right arm to alchemically bind Al’s soul to a suit of armor, saving Al from death, but making him unable to feel, sleep, eat, or experience pain.

After being fitted with metal prosthetics  (another science more advanced in their world) Edward joins the military (at the young age of 12) as a state alchemist, required to serve as a human weapon in war, but also given access to a huge research budget and restricted materials.  He an Al set out to find the philosopher’s stone, said to allow the bearer to ignore equivalent exchange in addition to amplifying reactions.  The Elrics won’t rest until they have their bodies back.

Really, FMA is one of the best shows I have ever seen.  The characters are smart and original, with personalities that are totally believable and likable.  Every character is distinct, despite the fact that most of them wear a military uniform.  It’s always enjoyable, even if Ed’s reaction to height comments gets a little old after the hundredth time.

What’s more it deals with the human condition in a very poignant way without preaching or becoming heavy handed.  I’m not ashamed to admit that Fullmetal is the only anime every to actually move me to tears. (In my own defense though manly-man character Major Armstrong cried at that point too)  Anime is not for everyone, not in Japan, and most certainly not in the West.  I can totally understand why someone would have no interest in any of it.  Even so, this series (both versions) I would recommend for anyone, anime fan or not.

[tags]anime, Fullmetal Alchemist[/tags]

Hello Botswana!

I just found out that TC is ranked among the top 500 websites being viewed from Botswana.  I have no idea why this is.

Thank you Botswana.

[tags]botswana, troll in the corner[/tags]

Paradox Interactive wants your mug in their video game

Paradox and Nitro Games are holding a contest in which you send in your portrait and they turn your face  into a 48×48 pixel version of, well your face.  But in a captains outfit!  You’ll be embedded forever in their forthcoming game East India Company.

You can take a gander at the instructions below.  I highly encourage everyone to enter pictures of Nathan Fillion’s face as I think he’d make an extraordinary captain.  Well, he already did, right?

Entering the competition couldn’t be easier, simply e-mail a picture of yourself (following the image guidelines), a short motivation of why YOU would make the perfect commander in ”East India Company”, your full name and age to pr@paradoxplaza.com. Mark your e-mail: RULE THE WAVES competition.

Submit by: July 16th

Winners will be announced on the forum, www.paradoxplaza.com, and www.eic-game.com shortly thereafter.

The winning ”Commanders” will be added to the game through an upcoming patch.
————————————————————————————————————————
Conditions:
- By submitting my picture I automatically accept the rules and conditions of this contest.
- Entrants must be over 18 years old.
- Paradox Interactive and Nitro Games are granted full access to select and use selected winning pictures and motivations.
- If selected as our winner, you must accept to participate in writing as well as verify your personal details and picture before being entered into the game.
- Selected winning submissions will be final and cannot be overruled or questioned.

This contest is not open to employees of Paradox Interactive AB or Nitro Games and its subsidiary companies and all other persons engaged with this competition, their immediate families, and relatives living in an employee’s household.

Rights in Submissions:
By submitting your entry to this contest, each Entrant hereby grants Paradox Interactive and Nitro Games the non-exclusive, worldwide license to use, copy, sublicense, transmit, distribute, publicly perform, publish, delete or display the animated version of the picture as well as the submitted motivation.

Each Entrant releases Paradox Interactive and Nitro Games, and their assignees and licensees, from any and all claims or liability (now known or hereafter arising), including but not limited to any claims for defense and/or indemnity, in connection therewith.

[tags]contests, nathan fillion, paradox, video games, east india company[/tags]

A Good Week for Anime, A Bad Week for Anime, part 3

Well, this is the last of my anime reviews for this week (previous post here).  I saved my favorite for the finale, even if it is the most bizarre of the lot.  The show is also very entertaining, in a morbidly funny way.  It’s called Princess Resurrection, and saying it is difficult to explain properly is an understatement.

Anyway, the anime opens with Hiro, a young boy, (looks about 10-12, but he is probably a bit older than that) moving to a new town to live with his older sister who has just gotten a job as a live in maid.  He gets to the mansion to find it boarded up.  While wandering the town looking for his sister he sees a gothic looking teen girl sitting on a very high stack of packages being pulled by what looks like a five year old girl in a maid outfit.  The teen gets down when a wheel breaks, just in time to be in the path of some iron girders that fall from a construction site.  Hiro pushes her out of the way, but is crushed himself. (Un)Luckily for him the girl is actually one of the monster princesses, able to grant half-immortality to the dead.  In a fit of whimsy (she says it is because she is merciful) she revives Hiro and makes him her first bodyguard, despite the fact that his only use in a fight is as a human shield.  Unless she keeps giving him the ‘flame of life’ every few days he will die and stay dead, but as long as she does so he will heal from any wound (even decapitation under certain circumstances) almost instantly.  In an interesting bit of homage she initially revives him while chanting a bit from Lovecraft, the oft repeated line supposedly from the Necronomicon, “That is not dead which can eternal lie.  And with strange eons even death may die.”  It turns out also that she is Hiro’s sister’s new boss, and he does move in, now as much (more really) her servant.  She tells him to call her Hime, but really that is just Japanese for princess, though we do learn in the last regular episode of season one what her name is.

From this point the series is basically Hiro’s pitiful attempts to help in defending Hime from the various monsters and assassins that attack.  You see, the royal family is fighting over who will be the next King, and its last prince/princess standing that wins.  Werewolves, vampires, mummies, zombies, invisible men, pretty much every monster staple you can think of makes an appearance, (even a few amusing appearances by a race modeled after the Creature from the Black Lagoon) and some very unique adventures ensue.  Luckily Hime has some more competent help than Hiro, at first only the midget gynoid Flandre, (who can only say the world Huga and starts acting crazy if the literal screw in her head gets loose) and later a half-werewolf and others.  My favorite episode had to be when Hiro and Hime become trapped in a ghost town during witching hour, and by ghost town I mean the ghost of a town, not an empty one.  Hiro’s sister is always amusing as well, oblivious not only to her many admirers, but everything supernatural happening around her.  In some ways this anime is similar to others about a young teen/boy surrounded by attractive females, but here it is done without the fan service (mostly, it is still anime after all, but it is limited to a couple episodes only) and more as an ironic source of humor rather than sexual.  In other ways it is nothing like those animes, because, basically, it is like nothing else I have seen to date.

As of early this year the first season has been released in two collections to the US, with subbing only though, no dubs as of yet.  There has unfortunately been no word if there will be a second season or not, though the manga is still ongoing.

To give you an idea of how bizarre it can be, here are the translated lyrics from the end theme music. (Keeping in mind that theme songs rarely make sense to begin with)  It doesn’t do it justice to see it without the wacky visuals, but it is something.

Get down on your knees and lick my red nails

Call me queen with your entangled tongue

The sun that blooms in Hell

Darkness that’s fallen to Paradise

If you’re confronted with light and despair

Which one goes deeper?

Roses fly from my head

I’ll scatter them into Nirvana

Wounds that secretly pain you

Blood that gushes away

They both lead to the depths of my heart

You’re given these gorgeous gifts as tribute

And yet you’re still

Seeking love?

Tell me exactly to what extent

Grown men are just foolish little boys?

Get down on your knees and lick my sacred feet

Call me queen in your hoarse voice

The proof of your life creeps up the tower of pain

Slowly making your way, you can barely breathe

But if you still ask for it

Your dying breath just might be

The words that melt

[tags]anime, Princess Resurrection[/tags]