Here’s the Bloodshots cut of “The Vessel.”
*Here* ARE THE SUBMITTED FILMS FOR BLOODSHOTS CANADA 2007. TO VOTE ON A FILM, email your vote for BEST FILM to: bigsmashproductions@gmail.com NO LATER THAN 7PM pst FRIDAY OCT. 26th. Only one vote per email address accepted.
Press pause when you get to the Scrabble board!
Ironically enough in the Scrabulous game I’m playing with Josh I got a bingo with the word TENTACLE. For reals!
Last week saw the last session of our year-long Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign for Call of Cthulhu the roleplaying game. It ended more-or-less successful. Many characters died horribly at the end of a tentacle (or similar godly appendage), though my character only lost his eyes. Thanks to Mike, David, Palle, John, and special guest stars Jason and Geisel for playing with, and of course Caleb for running the damned thing! I owned that book for years and never though I’d actually play through it. I even had a sip of champagne to toast the end of a most entertaining campaign. Hey, campaign and champagne rhyme.
And this week saw the premiere session of my Freeport piratey D&D campaign. I’m re-running the classic Freeport trilogy starting with Death in Freeport from my favourite publishers, Green Ronin. Today we finalized the characters and I think we have a pretty interesting group. There are in total nine (9) players in the group, thanks to my policy of over-booking. Question not my methods, for indeed three of the players had to cancel in the few days prior to the session, so we had a healthy 6 players + 1 DM at the table. Of course there is always the chance that all nine players will show up and there won’t be enough space at the table, but likewise there is the chance that six players may bail and we won’t have quorum to play! We’ll see which happens first.
I’m introducing a few intriguing new (for me) concepts into this D&D campaign. First, we’re taking a page out of 4th edition and condensing some of the skills. For example, Sleight of Hand + Move Silently + Hide all become one skill: Stealth.
Secondly, critical hits don’t do double damage: they have gruesome effects at DM discretion. This may be way worse than double damage, or not as good. Depends on whether you’re a PC or an NPC. Hello eye patches, hooks and peg-legs!
Thirdly, action points! Each player has action points to spend on rule-bending options like rerolling, acting out of initiative, and suchlike.
Fourthly, the campaign world is a grim and gritty world where magic, monsters and non-humans are rare. The only non-human the characters have seen so far is an elf, and she’s a PC. No gnomes, no halflings, no orcs, no dwarves (yet). Tolerance towards non-humans is low, and tolerance towards arcane magic (what people call The Dark Arts) is lower still – you won’t find any storefronts bearing the sign “Ye Old Magic Shoppe.” As such I discouraged wizard & sorcerer classes. But we do have a number of rogues and clerics in the group, and a ninja!
As per my previous campaigns: no alignments, and Experience Points have nothing to do with how many things you kill – it’s doled out in lump sums at DM discretion.
I just saw an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise that I had never seen before – and it was really good. Even though it was a very ST:The Next Generation storyline, it fit well into the whole “figuring out what interacting with alien planets and cultures is all about” theme that should have been the primary focus of Enterprise.
Briefly, the story was about meeting a species that had three genders, and the third gender, a “cogenitor” that they referred to as ‘it,’ was treated as a third class citizen in the the alien culture even though it had just as much “potential” as the other genders. So Trip starts to teach it to read and whatnot behind the backs of the other aliens and eventually it requests sanctuary on Enterprise (more or less). Even though the episode ended pretty much perfectly as a self-contained story in this series, I personally thought “wouldn’t it be cool if they had taken this character into the roster and we could all watch the characters shake it out.” But no, we’re stuck with the same old wooden whitebread personalities (Dr Phlox excepted of course). I felt the same way in the episode where the crew had to rescue Captain Archer from the Klingon penal colony Rura Penthe (yes the same one from Star Trek VI) and they offered to take along the Klingon lawyer who was sentenced along with Archer. But of course the Klingon refused with some halfassed reason.
On Saturday morning Mike called with a couple very important questions.
Several weeks ago, when Mike asked if I was available to be on his Bloodshots 24 Hour Filming Frenzy team this year I unfortunately had to say no, because of the show in Chilliwack on Saturday, and V-Con. (More on both of those later.) You may recall that a couple years ago I was involved in The Veil (which by the way, you can see at http://www.intake.ca/main.php – just click on THRILLERS at the bottom), which was Mike & Co.’s entry for that year. The subgenre of horror they drew was “Lovecraftian,” so Mike called on me as story consultant and I also ended up playing “The Doctor” for a brief cameo.
Well, this year they again drew the “Lovecraftian” subgenre and so the first question that Mike asked me when he called on Saturday was “are you available in an hour for a bit of filming?” I got out of bed, had a quick shower and biked over there to reprise my role for Mike’s first ever sequel. By the time you read this, “The Vessel” is finished and submitted to the Bloodshots staff. The screening of the films is on Wednesday at the ANZA club and unfortunately that’s the first night of my new Freeport D&D campaign which I daren’t shirk off. But I can’t wait for the next available screening to see how it all turns out! Especially since the second question Mike asked was “can we use a Thickets song in the end credits” and as of this writing I have no idea which song he chose, if any.
That, in a nutshell, describes the show we had in Chilliwack last night. The performance was not great, and the crowd and venue were…atypical but interesting. There are shows that you know are good, and there are shows that are so ridiculous that you just have to say “what the hell — if it can’t be good, it can be stupid.” And stupid is usually fun. There is something to be said for just giving up caring about remembering lyrics correctly and instead just doing goofy shit. Memories that last a lifetime! So yeah, not our best show but definitely an amusing time was had by all. Special thanks to Don for driving me and Mario out there, and for taking video with his camera that I hope to post here and on the Thickets youtube group.
photos courtesy Don Chambers
Because sometimes you just want to watch a young James Earl Jones count to 10.
Right about now is the start of Saturday Oct 20, which is the start of the annual 24 Hour Comics Day…
…an annual event where cartoonists around the world each try to create 24 pages of comics in 24 hours.
Last year, over 1200 cartoonists took part at events in 17 countries.
On October 20th, 2007, cartoonists around the world will face the 24 hour comics challenge. To help these cartoonists, some comic book stores, educational institutions, libraries, businesses, and comics clubs will host special 24 Hour Comics Day events. They’ll provide cartoonists with a space to work, access to food and drink, and camaraderie.
I really wish I had the time to participate! Stupid awesome rock band making me go to Chilliwack this weekend. If anyone who is interested in this CAN do so, Elfsar is hosting an event, as follows:
Elfsar Comics & Toys Annual Fundraiser begins Saturday morning at 10am – and you can still be a part!!
Participating in the global and international 24 Hour Comics Day for the fourth consecutive year, Elfsar is proud to go one step above giving creators the opportunity to flex their comic making muscles. Using their talent to give back to the community, the participants who will be at Elfsar
for 24 hours straight, each creating their own 24 page comic, will be in effect raising monies for Vancouver Food Bank.All participants are reminded to bring their paper, sharpest pencils, finest inks and any of their favorite snacks. (Don’t worry we will be providing one good meal to get them through the full event) Spectators are welcome to come by ANYTIME as the store will be open for the entire 24 hours!
Donations for The Vancouver Food Bank will also be accepted throughout the event and anyone wishing to support our creators in other means can drop off anything from bottled water to snacks as well.
24 Hour Comics Day – the most challenging story making event in the world begins tomorrow at 10 am (doors open at 9) and ends Sunday at 10 am! The full details can be found on our website! Look forward to seeing you there!
From the store that’s more than just selling you comics and toys,
-Elfsar Comics
ELFSAR COMICS & TOYS. 2007 OUTSTANDING COMIC RETAILER AWARD FINALIST! FEATURED IN BEST OF VANCOUVER 2006 & 2007! www.elfsar.com (604) 688-5922
Open 7 Days a Week
1007 Hamilton St. (Open Late) Wed – Fri 10:30 – 9:00
Vancouver, BC Mon, Tues & Sat – 11:00 – 6:00
Canada V6B 5T4 Sundays – 12:00 – 6:00
I spent last night pricing scores of artworks by me.
Last year I took in some art to V-Con and a few of them were sold. Mostly stuff from the “”every original drawing in this binder is $10” binder, I think. This year, I got Joyce to frame some stuff for me (I hate framing. Hate it!) and so I had to figure out what to charge. I really had no idea and the interweb wasn’t much help. So I figure either nothing will sell and I’ll come to the conclusion that my prices are too high, or lots will sell and vice versa. Or nothing will sell because V-Con isn’t a great venue for selling art. Expect a report in a few days. I saw Jonathan Dalton set up in the dealer’s room, which is completely separate from the Artist room, so that should be interesting to see how a comic creator does in there.
The con is in Richmond so I had to take some time off work to drop my stuff of this morning. I don’t have time to attend the convention, so I’m going back to pick up my stuff on Sunday afternoon. This involved taking big, awkward containers on a packed bus to Richmond which was no fun. I was told they’d be setting up at 8am, and of course I said I’d be there around 10 (getting up before 8:53am is not for me). I even got there a little late, but still had to wait about an hour and a half because they hadn’t set up yet. And then on my way home, only one block from my house, I got puddle-drenched by a passing B-LINE bus. Which only got me slightly more wet than biking to work anyway. Damn you Hurricane Meddlesome!
A few choice quotes from this blog article called “Why Chiropractors are Idiots…”
…not everything that feels good or makes us happy is medicine. …Feeling good is not the same thing as being well, an important concept that gets obscured in the expanding dust cloud from the stampede to well-being.
Your well-being, your opinion of your disease, your spirituality, and your ability to laugh and spread happiness and sunshine are completely useless in the face of a real disease. This is why there are no Complementary and Alternative Medicine emergency departments. That is, because their patients self-select for credulity. To open up your CAM practice to random patients with real complaints would put the lie to most of what you do, not to mention opening you up to all kinds of legal jeopardy for practicing fake medicine.
Every month, when I can, I am part of the Vancouver Comic Jam. Ever since the Jolly Alderman on Cambie shut down (thanks, Olympics!) they’ve had no luck finding a place to go. Have a read of Ed’s email and see if any ideas pop into your head (there’s also a Facebook group here)
So, it’s two days until the jam and I have still not been able to secure a venue. I’ve followed up on all of the leads that have been sent my way but none have panned out – either the place is already booked or they have some sort of event going on already.
I’m still looking, but things are not looking good for this month.
HOWEVER, someone brought to my attention that this Saturday is ALSO 24 Hour Comic Day. So, instead of meeting at one venue, why don’t we have pockets of people meeting all over during the day (an idea suggested by someone else here) and then meeting later in the eve at a pub to celebrate. This way, we can have smaller groups pushing each other to create their 24 hour comic.
The easiest thing to do, might be to comment here or go over to the Crown Commission message board (www.crowncommission.com/phpbb2) and discuss in the VCJ October thread. Arrange where you guys want to meet. Suggest pubs and I guess we can all meet up at whatever seems to be the better idea.
As for venues — I’m still looking. I’m open to all suggestions. I have a couple places that might work for November, but nothing for this month. What I would ideally like to do is find a cafe that is licenced and maybe closes earlier on a Saturday. I could pay for a staff member if they’re willing to open up for us. OR, if there is a hall/meeting space/centre/theatre/whatever, that could be rented for a couple hundred bucks (or less) on a regular basis. It would have to be someplace that would allow us to serve booze.
Please, keep the ideas coming.
Ed
