This has been my favorite opera aria since I heard the Met broadcast.

Sung to the a-bomb.

Mostly because I know Jenn loves this stuff, here's a series of photos taken in Pripyat. This town on the outskirts of Chernobyl was evacuated in two days in 1986 when the fire broke out at the power plant. It's safe to visit now, but the town is still abandoned.

Take a look.

I've learned an important lesson about my notebook PC; Beth. The fans move so much hot air out to the left side that I can set my tea mug there and it will stay warm much longer. Likewise, I have to put any soda can on the right side if I want to avoid heating it up.

Over the past few months the_stalwart has been working toward the release of his newest RPG, Serial Homicide Unit. A story game in which the players follow the lives of the police chasing down a serial killer, and the final days of the soon-to-be-victims.

It's a unique game for many reasons. First of all, it is an audio rule book. That's right, you don't read it.
A recording of the rules guides you through the game as you play.

Even more interesting is that the voice belongs to me.

Further adding to the interesting, there's some title music to start off the recording, also by me.

So, since my grubby mitts are all over this game, I recommend you go and buy it. (Playtesters should already have an e-copy. If you didn't get one, let me know and I'll pass the word along to Michael.)

Michael has asked me to work up an advert for the game. Once that is ready, I'll post it here.

This one too, is one we tried out in high school but I didn't actually get to sing in concert until Westminster. Only years later have I noticed that my high school choir director put some pretty challenging stuff in front of us; lots of polyphonic works and old Renaissance stuff. I think it's because he was largely left to his own devices.


In geek news, I heard a few good things about the Battlestar Galactica board game from a post by gillan. I decided that I'd seek it out. Then, I made the mistake of watching a few episodes online to get into the spirit of the game. My long dormant love of space opera/conspiracy drama was activated and suddenly I want to watch all the episodes of the show and make any and all available friends play this game. So, thanks Brett. It took me 7 years to overcome the space opera bug after Star Wars was ruined, and now I'm right back in. Hooray. Sigh.

This one takes me back. I first worked with this piece in high school. Our director was feeling out the choir at the start of the semester, to see what we could handle. Though we only gave this piece a few try-outs it stuck immediately as one of my favorites. Just hearing the part at 22 seconds, when the full chorus harmony hits still gets me, even after having heard this one maybe hundreds of times.

This one is also an actual Renaissance work by Thomas Luis de Victoria rather than a modern re-imagining.

Here's another English composer rewriting an old classic. Ralph Vaughn-Williams "Wassail Song." Wassailing is one of those great old words. Carousing without the seedy undertones. Eat, drink, sing, and be merry.

That high pitched sound is crappy audio encoding. Sadly, this is the best video of the song I could find.


As a side note, I've posted a few religious works so far but there's no subversive intent here. The concept of a "war on Christmas" was invented by a neo-nazi, so I don't buy into it. If you hear God in this music, that's your thing and you're welcome. I'm just here to point out that medieval style polyphony sounds good.

Benjamin Britten is another of my faves. His modern choral works ran throughout my school days from the first Chapel Choir class my freshman year. He was also a lover of the old tunes of medieval Europe and loved to reset texts in Middle English. Here's a choice selection from the "Ceremony of Carols."



The only thing better than a Middle English Christmas carol is one being redone by a twentieth century composer.

It's also fun to see the faces the kids make, wringing as much pathos from 1'15 as is possible.

I think somewhere around 1950 they stopped making good Christmas music. And even then, I feel we were in decline for about 2 or 3 centuries. If there's one thing I'm a snob about it's my Christmas music. So, go listen to some modern pop diva butcher "Let it Snow" and then come back here and watch this.


See, that's what I'm talking about! Crazy turn-of-the-century British man rewriting Elizabethan carols.

I don't hate other Christmas music. Along with Benjamin Britten's "Ceremony of Carols" I've also sung some great jazz arrangements of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" and the Westminster Singers traditional "Twas the Night Before Christmas." I'm just saying, is it too much to sneak in an occasional "Hodie Christus Natus Est" among the others?

If this makes me a crotchety old man, it makes me a 500 year old crotchety old man.

My office laid off 33 people yesterday and we've been told that until the end of the fiscal year we should expect further cutbacks and consolidation. In fact, the organization wants to cut spending by 50%. I guess I'm lucky to still be here, what with my lack of marketable skills. Today the entire building is a funeral parlor and I seem to be the loud-mouthed idiot who doesn't know how to behave.

I keep trying to discuss things in a "business as usual" tone and bring up plans for future projects, mostly about doing things like replacing costly business trips with web seminars and other things that I think are good for us keeping our jobs, and then I'm told I really shouldn't think about the future with so much uncertainty in the organization. So I'm the optimistic one.

Me? C'mon.

Maybe I'm too much a sociopath to feel the zeitgeist of the office. I mean, I caught myself not whispering while a guy cleaned out his cube on the other side of the dividing wall and that's a major faux pas today. So, I'm caught between being disrespectful to the "dead" by trying to think about the future, or looking unproductive by sitting around waiting for other people to want to work again. Scylla and Carbides.

Either way, I really want a double bourbon.

I haven't posted about a video game in a while, so why pretend I've actually been productive?

I could say that Resident Evil 4 is my all-time favorite game. It's the only game I've played through more than five times, and I unlocked the crazy upgrades, playing through with an infinite supply of tommy-gun ammo, dressed in a black pin-stripe suit and billowing silk scarf. Dead Space is the next logical extension of that trend. Staying in the same genre with similar interface and gameplay, but taking the action into the bleak world of deep space mining.

So here's the question. When does this game get difficult? I played Normal difficulty to start and equipped a high armor suit I downloaded because I expected to get thrashed and wanted to at least see the end of the story. By the end of the game, I had upgraded all my gear and I was still swimming in credits. I had abandoned all but two of the guns, the flying buzz saw launcher and the laser cannon, and when I finished the game and got a reward of extra credits and so on for my second play through, it was such an embarrassment of riches that I couldn't make myself do it and started a fresh game on Hard mode instead.

I decided I would not use my powered up armor suit and buy upgrades through the game like a common peasant. I saw there's an achievement for completing the game with only the plasma cutter side arm, so I decided to see how far I could get before I'd break down and buy a force gun, or return to my old friend, the ripper.

At level 7 out of 12, I'm still fine. Sure, I get ganked occasionally, but I know enough to retreat from mobs and that the best firing order is still 2 shots at the lead leg and then one at the lead claw arm to level most bipedal creatures. Some of the frights still make me jump and my heart rate climbs when one of them uses the ventilation ducts to get behind me but none of the other guns are really that appealing and I've got enough cash to buy an armor upgrade when it becomes available.

Maybe I'll change my tune when I get to the destroyer and the speedy ones start to gang up on me. I haven't upgraded my "not so fast buck-o" stasis module yet, but since I know they're coming up, I probably will by that time.

So, is it my mad skillz0rz from hours of RE4, or just a lack of game balance that make Dead Space less Deadly? I suppose we'll see what Impossible mode has to offer.

In other news, I've begun naming computers around my office. I think it started with my new laptop, since it was bigger than I expected I called it a behemoth the first week. That was shortened to Beth. Now I'm naming the servers I prep Ida, Thelma, Helen, etc. Perhaps I hope they will treat me better if I can call them by name.

It's done and I feel sick. I will feel this way the entire day. Yes, I know that even Karl Rove is calling it for Obama but The Fear has gripped me that all the pollsters were lying the whole time. As usual, my thoughts turn to time machines as the only certain way to quell anxiety.

So. Suicide pact, anyone?

I'm re-wearing an old costume this year (boo) because I couldn't get the right supplies to make a mask that matches the one I made for Jenn. Just look for posts with the tag halloween if you want to see the costume; it's from a few years back.

In honor of a day cherished by most of my fellow Silent Hill fans, I'm presenting a short story written in the setting of our favorite ghost-plagued, monster-ridden, hell-on-earth resort town. Now, I'm no expert, but this may constitute fanfic, a thing I usually try to avoid. But if you can get an audience riled just by writing "Toluca Lake," it's silly not to use it.

( GRAPHIC VIOLENCE AND GREAT UNKINDNESSES DO FOLLOW. )

Fallout 3 rocks. I feel like I could spend a long time playing this game.

I've noticed a pattern in my Fallout playstyle. When I start the game I always plan to try being the bad guy. Steal whenever I can, don't answer questions of the NPCs, take some opportunities to rack up bad karma by doing a few deeds for the devious denizens. That never happens.

I already knew about an early quest in which you can wipe out a settlement in a matter of seconds. It's a nasty thing to do, but I thought it would be interesting to try it. But then I went to the town. Maybe it was my high charisma stat, but people were generally nice to me. They told me about their lives before settling down. I met the Sheriff's son. Joel Creel told me about his adopted daughter. In no time I was doing errands for the people and when the sinister businessman shows up to invite me to destroy the place, I sicced the Sheriff on him and then blasted him. After he had killed the Sheriff unfortunately.

Then I went to the Sheriff's house and spoke to his son. There's this weird feeling of regret, that I should have been faster on the draw, or that I shouldn't have involved the Sheriff and taken out the bastard on my own. It probably doesn't help that the kid looks like one of the other kids I grew up with in the vault. One of the ones who didn't punch me when I wouldn't give him my birthday present.

It's always this way when I play an RPG. Even tabletop. My bad-ass jerks turn into supportive people who are eager to help and smooth over troubles among the PCs and NPCs. In subtle ways if not openly. Playing a Lasombra vampire with the intent of making him a pirate eventually resulted in me becoming a mediator between two other characters who bickered constantly and being spokesperson for the group as a voice of courtesy and respect.

Perhaps my personal morality isn't something I want to escape from when I'm playing an escapist game. Games without choices never get at me like this, but when there are consequences, I want to play like I would act in real life.

It's sobering in a way. I find myself actively fanning the flames of my misanthropy, especially in an election year, but when it's time to act on something, I'm back to being pleasant and helpful, even if I do it begrudgingly.

Anyway, my brother Steve wants to play his character in the manner of Ken from Fist of the North Star, so I'm trying to work up a build of stats, tags and perks for him. I wish him luck in focusing on melee and hand-to-hand combat against rabid bears and slavers armed with shotguns, but Fallout was supposedly made to be played however you want, provided you play with determination.

PS_ Another side effect is that I want to GM Tribe 8 again. For serious this time!

Jenn is hosting my non-plussed with hot dog entry, along with lots of photos of the Blackwell v. Axelrod wedding. It has already earned my vote for Wedding of the Year, but I may be prejudiced by my inclusion in the wedding party.

I'm trying to find a single photo of the event where I don't look like I'm about to collapse from exhaustion. It's funny because I felt great that day. I'm beginning to wonder if my default expression is one of soporific stupor and I just never noticed before. Still, it adds to the brooding effect.

I missed the debate but I heard it went swimmingly. All the same, the desperation and despicable tactics of the opposition still sicken me. I need to put myself on news blackout again. Every time I see a republican talking head on TV, I hear a shakily sampled voice from the old Space Hulk video game ordering the space marines to "Cleanse this place with fire."

Jenn's very busy with a job, so I'm going to step in and do a bit of promotion for her.

Later this month we'll be hawking her wares at the Monster-Mania Horror Movie Convention on August 22nd, 3rd and 4th. I'll be attending a wedding on the 23rd, so lady_tyrael will fill in as Jenn's lovely assistant. The Lost Boys reunion will be part of this convention, so if you've had your eyeballs scorched by the recent Lost Boys sequel it may bring some small comfort.

So if you're local, or not local and want an excuse to visit sunny New Jersey (too sunny for my taste) come on down, visit our table, get Robert Englund to autograph something and have a drink with us after buying one of Jenn's prints.

Dexcon was great. Which it has to be when we have such imaginative and friendly people in abundance. Though I was only able to play in one game of Carry (blackwell has some cool things to say) I ran four playtest sessions of Contract Work.



All of the sessions went off, which is a testament to the strength of the Indie Explosion at Dexcon. That both friends and strangers are willing to play with an incomplete game at a convention is really special. I mean, I once offered to pay someone to playtest and here we have people paying to be at the con and then playtesting. Pretty cool. More names on the Hit List.

Things are good with Contract Work. I think the mechanics are solid and the flow of gameplay is settling in. I made some tweaks to the endgame, copy/pasting some rules from elsewhere when I realized that consistency wasn't going to hurt anything. After the first two sessions, I had lots of notes about tweaking the rules to account for all the maybes but by the end of the second session I just crossed all of those out.

Now that the mechanics are good, I need to organize the rest of the game. The story side of a story game. I think of this stuff as the DM's guide. The PHB is the mechanics of character creation and interaction and the equipment list. It's the DM's material that builds a setting, organizes scenes and pacing and puts other bodies into the world so that the interactions go beyond numbers. That's something I need to devote myself to, now I know the numbers don't need quite so much tweaking.

I love Vietnamese food. I love eating it with friends. You guys are terrific. jenniferrodgers has some more photos of the event in recent posts, or page around the Flkr links from the devilishly handsome man above.

You didn't need to hear how great it is from me, but for those of you keeping score . . .

As of last night, I've seen The Dark Knight 3 times.

Also, as a sort of apology to everyone, I got caught up in some great end-convention conversations and forum threads but then I found out how hard it is to steal wi-fi on the shore. I'll catch up soon.

Was me clicking the "pre-order" button for this game hard enough to crush the desk under the mangled remains of my mouse.


Please note that the robot seems confused about what to do with the power tool attachment. Also Father's face while the Vault Tec rep. is discussing the future with Daughter.

Since the first Fallout game, I've found their incongruity of Mad Max post-apocalyptic bleakness with 50's kitsch and pop culture well worth the price of admission. I'm already asking myself the heavy questions:

Do I want to play like my first run at game 1? Go all out with Mad Max leathers and shoulder armor, trade in any gun that doesn't look like Decker's Blade Runner pistol, reload any save that keeps my dog alive? Or is it time to go Brotherhood of Steel? Powered armor, miniguns, paranoid racist propaganda, wholesale slaughter. Maybe I'll just headshot some Brothers and take their stuff . . .

Good thing I broke down and bought that 360.

Yes, I'm running 4 sessions of Contract Work this weekend at DexCon. I've trimmed down some of the dead branches that resulted from the last big rules changes and I'm happy with what I have. If you decide to play it you will find that the game is better streamlined and more intuitive, with a GM who remembers when to add color and when to crunch numbers instead of ignoring one of the two for the entire session.

I've also added some more "table business." A lesson learned from the better modern boardgames I've played; tokens that represent and reinforce the rules are always welcome. I'm not littering the place with miniatures or anything like that, but like the map/board of Candyland, a good visual layout of the game's events goes a long way toward motivating people.

Plus: Chalk outlines.

I always mention this stuff late because I'm still fiddling with the rules up to the last minute and don't feel ready to present the game to people. A sort of anti-marketing. I'm confident in this iteration though (revision 8,645) so it's time to get serious about making it a product instead of just a game.