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| Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 | | 10:46 pm |
Hikikomori: Day 2
I almost drowned this morning. I was standing on the beach in the sun. If that wasn't bad enough this huge wave comes up and sweeps me off my feel. I felt the tide pulling me away and my head plunged under the water. I thrashed about grasping for anything that might be near to hold on to. It was futile. I felt the need to breath creeping up on me with ever quickening pace. ( Read More )Milo Sebastian Rosenthorne The son of a copy machine repairman and a DMV bureaucrat. Works as a telemarketer selling knock-off designer underwear from his spartan studio apartment. Poet. Hope 0d10 Traits Imaginary Friend (Sensual young woman named Viola Graves, Furious[2]) 3d10 Delusion (Messianic) 3d10 Health Problem (Lung Cancer, thinks it's a bad cough) 3d10 Obsessive Hobby (Poetry) 2d10 Current Mood:  curious | | 12:03 am |
Hikikomori: Day 1
My name is Milo Sebastian Rosenthorne. Most people expect a number after a name like that but my parents were as blue collar as they come. My father worked as a copy machine repairman and my mother spent her days behind a counter at the DMV. The only wisdom I ever took away from them was that toner is over priced and that owning a car is not worth the paperwork. If the Rosenthorne name is to amount to anything resembling a legacy the work lies with me. ( Read more )*** Milo Sebastian Rosenthorne The son of a copy machine repairman and a DMV bureaucrat. Works as a telemarketer selling knock-off designer underwear from his spartan studio apartment. Hope 2d10 Traits Imaginary Friend (Sensual young woman named Viola Graves, Furious[2]) 3d10 Delusion (Messianc) 3d10 Health Problem (Lung Cancer, thinks it's a bad cough) 3d10 Current Mood: curious | | Friday, August 21st, 2009 | | 8:22 pm |
Hikikomori: Setup
Milo Sebastian Rosenthorne The son of a copy machine repairman and a DMV bureaucrat. Works as a telemarketer selling knock-off designer underwear from his spartan studio apartment. Hope 3d10 Traits Imaginary Friend (Sensual young woman named Viola Graves, Murderous[1]) 3d10 Delusion (Messianc) 4d10 Health Problem (Lung Cancer, thinks it's a bad cough) 3d10 Current Mood: curious | | Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 | | 10:57 pm |
Harriet The Spy
I just finished reading "Harriet The Spy." Wow. Just... WOW. I have often been amazed how a lot of children's literature seems to be more powerful than it's comparable adult material. "Harriet the Spy" just left them all in the dust. This is now officially one of my favorite books of all time. The ending absolutely FLOORED me. It's AMAZING. I can guarantee you will *think* you know what this book is about. I can also guarantee you that you will be WRONG. No, seriously. Read it. Then ask yourself: Would you teach *your* eleven-year old daughter the moral of this tale? Would you? Brilliant. Current Mood:  enthralled | | Friday, July 10th, 2009 | | 1:39 pm |
Shakespeare Fan Service
So, I had the opportunity to finally see the one Season 3 Doctor Who episode I missed, "The Shakespeare Code." Wow. I didn't think it was possible to turn Shakespeare into a Mary Sue. Wow. Current Mood:  shocked | | Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | | 12:10 pm |
Machine Girl
So, every once in a while I browse through Netflix Play Instantly and I come across things that make me chuckle because they are obviously soft-core porn masquerading as something else. And every once in a while I come across one that's SO obvious I can't help but try and confirm my suspicions. For example, I started watching a film called Virtual Girl which is about a AI sex program that becomes obsessed with her programmer. Yup. Soft-core porn. I watched about 20 minutes, got the idea and turned it off. That's what usually happens when I have to "check out" some of this oddities. Well, a couple days ago I came across a film called Machine Girl. It's a Japanese movie that bills itself as an action-comedy-horror movie about a high school girl whose brother is killed by a Yakuza. Oh yeah, and they cut her arm off, which she replaces with a machine gun to seek revenge. This set off my, "Oh, I HAVE to see the first 10 minutes of this." And now I have a question: What do the Japanese know that we don't know? Because I watched the whole damn thing. Do not get me wrong. This is a splatter movie. I mean REALLY gross stuff. Dismemberment. Torture. High Pressure Blood Spray. The works. The production company was even called something like "Tokyo Shock!" or something like that. And it managed to keep topping itself. Every time you think the movie's reached its peak there's another, "Oh what the fuck is this!" moment around the corner. And yet... And yet, the narrative was fucking gripping. I mean, real genuine moments of human empathy. It was funny, sad, and horrifying (in the human emotion way, not just the shock way). The action scenes were fraught with real tension, not just suspense, but actual dramatic tension. I was riveted and amazed. As an example, let me tell you about what clued me in by spoiling the opening. These are the first 10-15 minutes which I had intended to stop after watching. So, we have some youth-gang looking like guys who have another guy cornered. They're threatening him and throwing knives at him. Machine Girl shows up and, well, blows them away. Again, this is a splatter film. This scene is a blood bath in the most gross out way possible. When she's done she turns to the guy who was previously cornered and says, "You're safe now. You can go." The guy looks at her, absolutely horrified, and runs away screaming, "Murderer! Murderer!" I wasn't expecting that. The character in the film reacted with as much shock and horror as the audience was expected to. I just had to keep watching. And I can't help but think, what are we in American "schlock" cinema doing wrong? When Japan's toss away low-budget gross out shock pictures are THIS good, why are we resorting to a entire genre being derisively labeled as "Torture Porn"? Edited Note: Special kudos to the scene whose first five minutes made me think, "Man, I could REALLY go for some Sushi right now" and whose last five minutes made me think, "Dear god, I never want to eat Sushi ever again." Also, there was exactly ONE line of dialogue spoken in English. It was, "Kill, Kill, Kill." I can't help but wonder WHY that line was in English. Current Mood:  contemplative | | Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 | | 1:56 pm |
Houses of the Blooded
I don't know why I haven't made this post sooner. (That's a lie. I know why. This is my apology). So those of you who still have me friended and are fans of 7th Sea I really suggest you take a look at Houses of the Blooded. It can be found here: http://www.housesoftheblooded.net/Houses of the Blooded is a game by John Wick, the same author as 7th Sea. It is probably best described as 7th Sea distilled. Or more specifically Voddace run through a refinery... and laced with absinthe. The idea is that you play an ancient race of nobles called the Ven. On the scale of ambition the Ven make the Vaddace look like slackers. Ostensibly the game is about Romance and Revenge. Says so right on the cover. All of this combines to be pretty much my dream game. Obsessive nobles who pursue romance and plot revenge with sword and roses. What's not to love? Well... the underlying system. I'm unconvinced that the underlying system actually enables the play group to address those topics. It certainly allows the group to play act those things. I mean there are whole sub-systems specifically for romance and revenge. It's not just color. It's there at the heart of the system. There's a difference, however, between a system that allows you to ride out a cascade of cool revenge and romance color to an inevitable conclusion and one that allows you to take on those things as *issues* to be questioned and addressed through play itself. I'm unconvinced the system will enable me to do the later which is what I want to do with the material. But I'm also unsure of that. I keep being drawn in by the games flavor and kicked away from it by its system. It's like this game has me locked up in battered-spouse syndrome and that's just the text since I haven't actually played it yet. And I think I might just have to. Current Mood: confused | | Friday, May 15th, 2009 | | 5:50 pm |
On Art
I've decided that art does two things. It celebrates that which is beautiful and condemns that which is ugly. Good art does one or the other. Great art does both. Current Mood: contemplative | | Friday, April 10th, 2009 | | 10:55 am |
Revenge Porn
So I've been reading the novels of Dennis Lehane. If you've seen the film Gone, Baby, Gone it's based on the fourth book in a series of detective novels. I pretty much devoured all five books in the series in rapid succession. They're really good contemporary hard-boiled crime fiction. However, I've also referred to them as "Revenge Porn" because the investigators in these books have a ruthless and relentless sense of justice. They don't stop and are willing to pay any price to see the guilty party punished. That's a critical word. Not just caught. Not just stopped. Punished. I don't know why but I have a very strong attraction to that unrelenting pursuit of justice. It's why I enjoy Batman. It's why I enjoy Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Hell, once Goren is through with a suspect I rarely don't care if he goes to jail. Goren has already stripped him of all dignity and anything he may have loved or cared about. Now in Lehane's novels the climaxes usually result in the villain getting killed. Death being presented as the ultimate punishment which pretty much works with the Catholic undertones the series carries. However, that has never sat well with me. There are lots of movies that end with the death of the villain and they never make me happy. Death is too good for some people. Oddly enough, Lehane appears to agree with me. There's a great scene in the fifth book, "Prayers For Rain" where a man who has been laboring under a guilty conscience for many years says, "I guess that's how God punishes us. He lets us live." That line made me grin because, yes, exactly. Thinking about it I sketched out some notes for a short story collection about justice, punishment and revenge. The central character would be a masked avenger type called The Angel. He'd be almost the opposite of Batman or The Shadow in appearance. He wears mostly white and speaks in soft melodic tones. However, he'd almost never appear in the stories until the very end because the stories are told from the perspective of his targets. The stories would follow the actions of characters The Angel was punishing. We'd slowly watch their live crumble around them and only in the end, when they're driven to the breaking point would The Angel actually appear and explain WHY the person is being punished. The psuedo-mystery element would be trying to figure out what the person must be guilty of from the way they're being punished. I doubt I'll ever write them. I'm lazy that way but they're fun to think about. I did write this exchange though: Man (crying, clearly broken): "If what I did is so heinous why don't you just kill me?" The Angel: "Death isn't good enough." Man: "Do you not believe in Hell?" The Angel: "I'm a man of God. I believe in Hell and all its torments." Man: "Hell isn't good enough?" The Angel: "No." Man: "Why?" The Angel: "Because if you're burning in Hell, I can't watch." Current Mood:  creative | | Thursday, December 4th, 2008 | | 4:29 pm |
The Borders War
I want to tell you about a horrible war that happened. It’s a horrible war that took place right in your very home town. It took place in your local bookshop. Very late one night and the History and Travel sections formed a secret and unholy alliance. Together they suddenly, and without warning, brutally savaged the Fantasy and Science Fiction section. So total was the devastation that the few survives of Science Fiction were sold into slavery to the Thriller section. Fantasy faired a little better by taking refuge in the Romance section but it wasn’t long before they, out of desperation, collectively invaded the Horror section. Terrified of the bloodshed it saw around it the Mystery section, seeking protection, hastily signed an ill conceived and ultimately oppressive treaty with the True Crime and Legal sections. It’s a brutal and war torn landscape. Nothing is left but the pale shadow of the formerly challenging and thought provoking content. Is there no hope? I say there is. There is a subversive underground brewing. An unlikely underground as all undergrounds are. Watch the Teen and Young Adult sections…. carefully. Current Mood:  cranky | | Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 | | 12:15 pm |
Not Dead
So, I haven't posted around here in a while. I figured I'd drop by and say, "Hi. I'm not dead." Living down in the OC has sort of limited my regular access to LA dwellers. That, and I'm a horrible planner and instigator. But I haven't fallen down a hole. I've been quite busy. Here: http://playpassionately.wordpress.com/and Here: http://bloodthornpress.wordpress.com/Oh, and spending WAY too much time in World of Warcraft. I've also just started reading the original Grimm's Fairy Tales. There's some interesting stuff in there. Also, I'm thinking about trying to, "get the band back together" starting in January for some regular gaming. Anyone interested? Hope all is well with those of you still have me friended. Not Dead. Promise. Current Mood:  good | | Friday, September 12th, 2008 | | 2:21 pm |
Cell Phone Conversation On The Way Back From Lunch
Me: "I'm looking at a poster for a TV Show that is described as 'Mind-Blowingly Inappropriate' I was wondering if you had any idea what that meant?" Laura: "I'm pretty sure that means it's on Fox." Current Mood: amused | | Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 | | 11:12 am |
Films
Last night I had the opportunity to see both the Tim Burton film of Sweeney Todd and the new remake of Sleuth. Both are childhood favorites of mine. I really enjoyed Sweeney Todd. I can see how some purists would be a little disappointed but from a film-making perspective I respect the choices that were made. If I had a complaint it’s that the cast, while amazing, were not professional singers and Sweeney Todd is perhaps one of the most musically complex scores ever composed. The result is that the songs felt a bit flat and blended together a bit. I’m also glad that they didn’t so super-go-nuts with the special effects and make everything uber-gory. It’s graphic but not gratuitous. Good on Burton on showing some restraint. Wonderful Sweeney Todd, decent Phantom of the Opera… now all they have to do is fix the ending of Little Shop of Horrors, and film Jekyl and Hyde and my musical movie collection will be complete. Sleuth on the other hand was a bit of a WTF? Here’s the deal I was okay with it through Act I and Act II of the story. Sure, it’s leaner and meaner and definitely ruder and cruder but I was kind of digging on that since everything else was basically the same. Then we hit Act III… WTF… Here’s what I have to say about Act III of the new version of Sleuth: It’s basically original Sleuth slash fan-fiction. ‘Cause, you know, two driven men engaged in an intense and intimate battle of wits MUST be sexually attracted to one another. MUST. BE. | | Friday, March 21st, 2008 | | 7:21 pm |
| | Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 | | 10:35 am |
From Behind The Wall
Every time I go to the kitchen I feel like I don't belong there. I feel like I'm about to transgress on some previously unarticulated protocol. Are those unattended bagels in the middle of the room REALLY for the taking? I grab what I want and then make a mad dash back to my desk where I feel safe again. Current Mood:  nervous | | Monday, March 3rd, 2008 | | 3:02 pm |
Storm Front
So after completing White Jazz, the fourth book in James Ellroy's LA Quartet I decided to give Dresden Files a try. I'd heard the name of this series around various places but never given it a serious look until I had a conversation with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) wunderworks in the comment thread of another LJ post. I figured I'd give it a try. At lunch I finished Strom Front which is the first book. Here's the verdict: It's a fun easy read and has a LOT of elements I like but lacks something essential I require in my fiction. What I Like: 1) There is no origin story for the character, nor is the central character an outsider whisked into a world he doesn't understand. Harry Dresden is already well established in what he does and where he's from at the beginning of the book. This isn't "The day Harry discovered he was a wizard" or even "The day Harry decided to become a P.I." No, Harry is Harry, fully formed. 2) Magic is difficult at best and requires reality twisting scary stuff at worst. I smiled pleasantly when Harry was worried about how long it would take to walk some where and would he be back in time for an appointment. No, snapping fingers and teleporting or anything like that. It was over 75 pages before Harry does any magic at all. Also, just cause I'm a Sorcerer fanboy I could make a strong argument as to why the whole thing could be modeled using the rules of Sorcerer but I admit it would require a bit of stretching on what one could use Lore for. For those of you who have read the book AND know Sorcerer: Look at Bob and his behavior. That is how you run a demon in Sorcerer. The scene with the potions and the later follow up consequence scene is fucking TEXTBOOK Sorcerer. 3) It's a self contained story. Although it contains a lot of (irritating, to me) elements that are clearly meant to sustain a series with recurring elements it is not the first part of a larger story arc. I was even pleasantly surprised when one of the elements I was convinced was part of the recurring structure actually resolved. What was missing: In a word: Doubt. At no point is there any reason to doubt Harry, his world view or his decisions. Sure, he gets into a lot of sticky situations and danger which sometimes endangers his innocent bystander friends but.... it's all neat and tidy. Harry is in the right, what he does transgresses no reasonable boundaries and there are no questionable consequences for how things turn out. Now, I'm sure those who know me are probably going to jump all over me and my preferences for the dark, morbid and madness. So before you do I want you to consider that what I'm talking about doesn't have to be heavy deep dark stuff that burns in the depths of the human soul. May I offer up: Spongebob Squarepants. No, I'm not kidding. Let as look at he "who lives in a pineapple under the sea" in terms of real life issues. At the end of the day ALL Spongebob Squarepants relationships are poisonous to his wellbeing. His best friend is a loser. His boss exploits the weaknesses of those around him. His co-worker is a hardened cynic. His girlfriend is totally oblivious to the needs of those around her. But they are not necessarily bad people and, by golly, Spongebob intends to do right by all of them. Almost every episode is about one of more of Spongebob's friends putting the squeeze on his goodwill. His impeccable sense of loyalty is thumb screwed tighter and tighter until Spongebob hits some breaking point and is forced to compromise his ethics in order to save himself. The audience is always left wondering, "Did Spongebob do the right thing?" or "How would YOU have handled it?" -- Doubt. In fact I have come to trust "children's" entertainment lately far more than adult entertainment for delivering me a solid story. Finding Nemo, Ice Age, Shrek, Shrek 2 (even more so). What does it say about our culture that children's entertainment is more socially relevant than the equivalent adult media? Why is children's literature morally taxing while adult literature is morally comforting? To come back to Dresden Files, what I think bothers me most is the number of missed opportunities for exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. The White Council and The Laws of Magic -- What a great opportunity to create a complex political body with a surface level positive agenda but a complex and questionable bureaucracy underneath. Are the Laws of Magic actually just? Is the White Council the best method of enforcing those laws? What's the price of obtaining justice? But no... the White Council is generally right minded and although perhaps a bit stubborn and short sighted is clearly a group of "good guys." The Laws of Magic are all clear and safe. Dresden's Past -- He killed his mentor. Another opportunity to add moral complexity. But no, it was clearly a case of self-defense in the face of absolutely corrupt magic. Dresden's Relationship With Bob -- Bob is by far the best thing about the Dresden Files. There comes a point where Dresden is backed into a corner and has to give in to Bob's demands in order to survive.... but there are no consequences. No follow through. Where is the damage for giving Bob what he wants? Where is the mess Dresden has to clean up because of Bob's doing? Where is the *price* for anything Harry does? Over and Over again the opportunity for doubt is presented.... and side stepped for the safer more comforting alternative. Current Mood: thoughtful | | Thursday, February 28th, 2008 | | 1:01 pm |
Hypercompany
Three years ago I interviewed at two companies on the same day. The first was a fly-by-night start up located in the basement of what used to be some kind of research laboratory. The other was a rather large, clean, spit-n-polish corporate place. I decided to work for the guys in the basement. I'm technically still working for the guys in the basement. The ironic twist is that the very same corporate place has hired us to help them out on a project. This wouldn't really be a problem for me except for the fact that we've moved into their office space. I've been playing Spione lately which is a Cold War espionage game set in Berlin. And that's how I feel. I feel like our little casual basement team is West Berlin wholly surrounded by the corporate police state. And I've only been here three hours... Current Mood: scared | | Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 | | 3:58 pm |
Making Sense To No One But Myself
The world is not merely a dictionary of precise meaning. It is also a tapestry of culturally shared emotion. Current Mood: aggravated | | Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 | | 1:47 pm |
Funny Life Moment
So dorcus and I were wandering around Game Stop yesterday and I spotted Devil May Cry 4 and I said something like, "Oh, hey Devil May Cry 4!" to which dorcus replied, "That's a lot of crying the devil may do." To which I cannot stop laughing. There's something about that phrasing that just tickles me. Maybe it's just me. Current Mood: amused | | Thursday, January 10th, 2008 | | 12:29 pm |
L.A Quartet - L.A. Confidential
To call L.A. Confidential a "hard boiled detective novel" is a little bit like calling Lord of the Rings a "fairy tale." Indeed there are scenes in L.A. Confidential where the detectives collate evidence across the book's numerous plot lines that make the histories recounted at the Council of Rivendell (sp?) look like nursery rhymes. I admit I was somewhat reminded of The Ninja's review of Pirates of the Carribean 2 while reading this book. There is literally a crime committed and a crime solved on every page. Pornography has a plot line. Prostitutes have a plot line. Extortion has plot line. Every victim has a plot line. Heroin has a plot line that started all the way back in the previous book. There's this fictional TV show in the book called Badge of Honor... the set director has a plot line. The last line of the book is new a plot line. If you've seen the movie the book ends VERY VERY differently. As a comparison the movie is a masterpiece of tone, atmosphere, and character. It does a very good job of squeezing the book down to its essentials and overall I think the movie packs more emotional punch. I admit I found it very difficult to care about anyone or anything by the end of the novel because just so much horribleness had happened. (Shades of The Ninja: This book had too many criminals. If you weren't a criminal at the beginning of the book, now you're a criminal). I admit to thinking this sense of uncaring however was intentional. The last portion of the book involves the last lead character standing sort of walking from place to place tearing down every childhood dream and hero with almost sociopathic efficiency. Elroy is now three for three where the most psychologically monstrous character is also facially disfigured. Rolling into White Jazz.... Current Mood: thoughtful |
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