Personal

My schedule for the BFFF appears to be something like this: Thursday, 10/14 Saw (9:30) Good buzz on this. (Buzzsaw. Heh.) It’s a low budget horror flick starring Cary Elwes with a claustrophobic one-room setup — the gimmick is a serial killer who always convinces his victims to kill themselves. I was hoping this would drift through Boston sometime. Friday, 10/15 Infernal Affairs (7:30) The hot Hong Kong police thriller of the moment. The premise: both the mob and the cops planted an undercover agent in the opposite ranks. Fifteen years later, violence ensues. This series replaced the Young and Dangerous movies as the top Hong Kong action series, which is kind of unsurprising since they share the same director. I liked Young and Dangerous a lot and I’m gonna like this too. It’s currently being remade by Martin Scorsese with Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio; the remake is set in Boston and centers on the Irish mob rather than the triads. You can feel the Boston mob movie trend juggernaut gaining steam, can’t you? ...

Gozu is playing down at the Brattle tonight at midnight. Anyone in the mood to see one of the oddest movies of the last few years?

A couple of years ago, I linked to Dave Barry on this date. That suits again. Also this, which makes me sad every time I look at it, and today makes me cry.

In case anyone’s missing my vital GenCon posts and wants to know where they are, they’re over at The 20’ by 20’ Room as follows: Wednesday night (original), Thursday (original), Friday (original), and Saturday (original). If you don’t care about gaming, don’t bother.

Hey, I hear I’m going to be at GenCon. So, they say, are some of you. I am not going to post my full schedule because nothing horrifies me more than people knowing where I’m going to be. Shudder. However, I will be at the Indie RPG Awards on Wednesday night around 9, and before that I will swing by Nicky Blaines since there’s a rumor that some people I know will be there, if they don’t mind me crashing the party. Hopefully the fine people at Nicky Blaines will have forgotten me from last year. ...

Shaolin Soccer is playing this weekend at the Brattle — anyone interested in a Saturday showing, say 7:30? (Friday at 9:30 would also work for me.) They’ve also got Last Life in the Universe coming up, which won Best Overall Film (Jury Prize), Best Asian Film (Jury Prize), and the AQCC Award at FantAsia (original). Gotta make sure I get out to see that.

So I figured I might as well go to an Amber convention because I like new things and I have friends who said “You should come!” And if I’m going to go do something new, I’m of course going to write about it. Thusly. The Black Road has something like 36 people attending, which makes it the smallest con I’ve ever been to. The small size means it’s relatively easy to get all the GMs and all their players talking before the game. I had two PCs in hand weeks before the convention, which boosted my anticipation considerably. It’s tempting to think this could work for bigger cons, but that way lies madness. At least for the convention organizers. ...

I seem to have six Gmail invites. There are no good usernames left, but if you still want one, drop me an email. Grovelling is optional.

“Two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and black with a centered yellow emblem consisting of a five-pointed star within half a cogwheel crossed by a machete (in the style of a hammer and sickle).” Angola (original).