Rather Insane Boardgameblog Update

I had a rather crazy last four days worth of gaming, so it resulted in a largish batch of review material. The first tranche has just been posted to Boardgameblog: Two games by James Ernest, Falling and Give Me the Brain!, Uwe Rosenberg's Mamma Mia!, Michael Schacht's Paris Paris, and the Leo Colovini/Alex Randolph collaboration Inkognito the Card Game.

Four day break coming up!

Religious holidays. We will mark them with some relaxation and some gaming.

Boardgameblog is updated with last Saturday's gaming.

Also have the poster of the upcoming Robert Rodriguez film "Sin City" up on Silver Screener. It looks really good. And it's got Jessica Alba in it as a stripper. Hubba hubba. Although I bet she'll do a Nat Portman and not actually strip. Hey, it's ok, it's all good! :)

Boardgameblog Update: Review of Elfenland and our March 12th Game Night

Now up on BGB, a review of Alan Moon's Spiel des Jahres-winning game Elfenland, and our last game night report.

Silver Screener Update - Cellular and The Village

Added reviews to The Silver Screener for the action flick Cellular and M. Night Shyamalan's latest "twist flick", The Village. Neither were memorable...

The Last Sandman

Michael Zulli, the artist for Neil Gaiman's The Wake, is doing his final portrait of Morpheus and documenting its progress here. It's so fascinating "watching" an artist work, and his commentary is intriguing.

Lots of updates for both sub-blogs, but haven't found the time to put them up yet. Will try to do later today...

Book Review: Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code

Yes, I read it.

I wasn't overly impressed.

Brown has an informal style that's not hard to read but is likely to drive sticklers for construction batty. The Da Vinci Code (TDVC) is essentially a conspiracy theory cum mystery thriller. Brown uses a fictitious secret society called the Priory of Sion and builds a mystery around it. It's not half as clever as it sounds, but Brown's efforts to weave in a lot of information on how Leonardo da Vinci's works tie in make the work intriguing to many who haven't heard of the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail (HBHG). HBHG was published in 1982, predating TDVC by 20 years, and it recounts the "history" surrounding the Priory of Sion.

Too bad the Priory thing was a complete hoax. (Follow the link to wikipedia.)

Anyway, TDVC's setup is more than competent. It builds on a bunch of "interesting" interpretations of Leonardo's works, and weaves in some more "facts" surrounding the Opus Dei, the de facto antagonists of the book. (Yes, yes, there is a twist somewhere in there.) The problem is that Brown loses his way in the middle, when the "interesting interpretations" lose their charm and the whole plot starts to lose steam.

The ending, well, sucks.

So, TDVC has a decent opening third, a mediocre middle third, and a subpar final third. Not a waste of time, but it's not something I'd go out of my way to look at.

The final note here is that while TDVC is certainly a work of fiction, or perhaps alternate history if you prefer, it does use a real-world setting. The Opus Dei does indeed exist, and a lot of people on the planet do believe that Jesus Christ was a god. The controversy potential of the book is so good that I'm not surprised it got published. I'm even more surprised that it's apparently flying under the radar in this country, which is partly controlled by the Roman Catholic Church and where the Opus Dei has a not-insignificant presence.

Will TDVC come and go quietly? I wouldn't bet on it.

VentiDecafNonfatMocha FrappucinoLessWhipPlease

Great post on Matt Baldwin's blog about Seattle's Starbucks Coffeespeak. The comments are hilarious.

Come to think of it, I'm hearing that sort of thing a lot more around here, in the upscale areas (the Starbucks in 6750 for one).

Boardgameblog Update - Game night and reviews of King's Breakfast, You're Bluffing, Bluff

Largish BGB update over the weekend. We had Saturday night dinner and games, in celebration of my friend Nix's birthday. Also posted reviews for three filler-type light games: King's Breakfast and You're Bluffing, two card games (okay, You're Bluffing isn't really a filler), and the 1993 Spiel des Jahres winner Bluff, which is a dice game with strong ties to the traditional game Liar's Dice.

Tala and Titus, if you're reading this send me the pix you took last Saturday!

Weekends

Sometimes I wonder about the utility of weekends. It’s a constant struggle between wanting to do stuff you have no time to do during the weekday due to work or school or whatever it is you do during the weekday if you’re an eight-to-fiver, or shutting down and recuperating from a crazy week in preparation for another crazy week. The compromise seems to be to spend a day out, and a day resting, but that’s seldom possible since there are so many demands upon your time. It’s personal time that’s usually sacrificed, the quiet moments that you try to take to reflect upon your direction in life and where you want to go. I guess that’s why so many people get stuck in cruise control, with little incentive to change directions because it would entail allocating a lot of time that you don’t seem to have. If your current situation drains away all your time such that you’re unable to find a quiet moment, how crazy would it get if you’re trying to get into something new? Opportunity costs are a real pain.

Uh-oh

Harry Potter fans, rejoice! J.K. Rowling has announced that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Book 6 in her wildly popular Harry Potter series, will be released July 16, 2005.

Megalomaniacs look here!

Ever wanted to be like Darth Vader and destroy the Earth? Well, you're going have to find a way to make a Death Star, because current means are unlikely to work. This article summarizes the ways that you can try to blow up Mother Earth, and why you'd fail miserably.

New Blog - Titus's Games

My friend and German game supplier Titus just started his own blog. Check it out at Titus's Games and Hobbies. If you're from around here and need a game fix you can visit his same site at Ubergames.

The Silver Screener Updated - Reviews of Sideways and Ray

Got to see Sideways and Ray leading up to the Oscars. Sideways was a good show all around. Ray was ok, but it had a big flaw.

Did pretty good on my Oscar picks, though Natalie Portman didn't win. It was a long shot anyway.

Boardgameblog Update - Blue Moon and Mexica Reviews and a Game Day Report

I just posted reviews of the Kramer/Kiesling game Mexica, the third of their Action POint-driven "Mask Trilogy", and Reiner Knizia's Blue Moon, a not-so-good attempt at a collectible card game without the collection but with "expansion".

We also had a good game day on February 26th.