Weekend roundup
I didn't do much in the way of movie watching this weekend, either at the cinema or at home on the small screen. The closest I got was listening to Total Recall and Starsky and Hutch (both of which I've seen before) on Sunday evening while I worked on Girlz 'N' Games #52 - which is set to debut online later this week.
Anyway, here's what happened in terms of my pop culture activities this weekend:
Gaming
Our weekly Dungeons & Dragons game was delayed until Friday evening where my half-elf paladin, Herkon the Magnificent (occasionally also known as Herkon the Magnificent Fuck-up) made amends for a horribly botched battle in which he was incapable of hitting anything or anyone. Nasty tough skinned little dragon men!
Anyway Herkon redeemed himself by firstly preventing Kaleanae, our self-interested assassin-ranger, from freaking out at the sight of a massive volcano elemental and diving into a lake of lava. Yay for auras for courage.
Secondly, at the insistence of our party's mage - a member of the red robe-wearing Order of the Dragon - Herkon cleared a centuries' old dragon egg of dark energy by blasting it with his holy powers. Upon clearing the egg it promptly hatched to reveal a glowing baby gold dragon inside. The little guy took to Herkon immediately, who may, accidentally, have altered the dragon's nature with his powerful good energies. Oops! Incidentally it now looks like Herkon is "collecting" the different dragon types. He has received instruction from, and is occasionally allowed to ride, a gargantuan black dragon. He saved a young red dragon from horrible magical torture, which in turn gave him a brief psychic connection to the creature. And now there's the gold baby dragon who, in Herkon's mind, calls him "Daddy".
In terms of PC gaming, our World of WarCraft guild is growing, with several real life friends joining us on the Horde side of life this weekend. If you are a WOW player on European servers, you're welcome to join Castle Drekmore on the Burning Steppes PVP server. We're a very casual guild, looking at running instances and raids maybe once or twice a week so there is no overwhelming commitment required on your side... particularly if you, like me, are pretty damn busy most of the time. If you are interested, look out for Owik, Merle, Euridycee and Herkon online and /w them for a guild invite. And say pfangirl sent you!
Reading
Some lovely sunny Spring weather this weekend meant I just had to laze out in the sun reading and working on my tan. This allowed me to finish the Pulitzer Prize winning The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The novel, a post-apocalyptic tale of survival centred on a close-knit father and son, is bleak, bleak, bleak but it is magnificently written. After reading so much badly written tripe lately (Stephenie Meyer I'm looking at you!), McCarthy's prose is powerful in its simplicity; each word carefully chosen for its maximum impact. The ending also reduced me to tears; something a book hardly ever does.
After doing my English Honours in 2005, where I was reading at least 3 thematically heavy novels a week, I was put off serious, dense, award-winning literature for a long time. However, after hearing about the film adaptation of The Road I was intrigued, and I wanted to finish the book in preparation for the film's release later this year (well, 26 February 2010 for South Africans).
Television
I imported the 1990s X-Men animated series on Region 1 DVD a few months back and finally made a start on it last night. I'm 4 episodes in and so far the series holds up surprisingly well - no doubt due to its detailed comic-book style animation and mature themes. What is most surprising is just how badass Wolverine is in animated form. How sad that Logan is far more feral, threatening and enigmatic in a Saturday morning cartoon than 4 live-action films, which really filed down the character's edginess into blandness.
Anyway, here's what happened in terms of my pop culture activities this weekend:
Gaming
Our weekly Dungeons & Dragons game was delayed until Friday evening where my half-elf paladin, Herkon the Magnificent (occasionally also known as Herkon the Magnificent Fuck-up) made amends for a horribly botched battle in which he was incapable of hitting anything or anyone. Nasty tough skinned little dragon men!
Anyway Herkon redeemed himself by firstly preventing Kaleanae, our self-interested assassin-ranger, from freaking out at the sight of a massive volcano elemental and diving into a lake of lava. Yay for auras for courage.
Secondly, at the insistence of our party's mage - a member of the red robe-wearing Order of the Dragon - Herkon cleared a centuries' old dragon egg of dark energy by blasting it with his holy powers. Upon clearing the egg it promptly hatched to reveal a glowing baby gold dragon inside. The little guy took to Herkon immediately, who may, accidentally, have altered the dragon's nature with his powerful good energies. Oops! Incidentally it now looks like Herkon is "collecting" the different dragon types. He has received instruction from, and is occasionally allowed to ride, a gargantuan black dragon. He saved a young red dragon from horrible magical torture, which in turn gave him a brief psychic connection to the creature. And now there's the gold baby dragon who, in Herkon's mind, calls him "Daddy".
In terms of PC gaming, our World of WarCraft guild is growing, with several real life friends joining us on the Horde side of life this weekend. If you are a WOW player on European servers, you're welcome to join Castle Drekmore on the Burning Steppes PVP server. We're a very casual guild, looking at running instances and raids maybe once or twice a week so there is no overwhelming commitment required on your side... particularly if you, like me, are pretty damn busy most of the time. If you are interested, look out for Owik, Merle, Euridycee and Herkon online and /w them for a guild invite. And say pfangirl sent you!
Reading
Some lovely sunny Spring weather this weekend meant I just had to laze out in the sun reading and working on my tan. This allowed me to finish the Pulitzer Prize winning The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The novel, a post-apocalyptic tale of survival centred on a close-knit father and son, is bleak, bleak, bleak but it is magnificently written. After reading so much badly written tripe lately (Stephenie Meyer I'm looking at you!), McCarthy's prose is powerful in its simplicity; each word carefully chosen for its maximum impact. The ending also reduced me to tears; something a book hardly ever does.
After doing my English Honours in 2005, where I was reading at least 3 thematically heavy novels a week, I was put off serious, dense, award-winning literature for a long time. However, after hearing about the film adaptation of The Road I was intrigued, and I wanted to finish the book in preparation for the film's release later this year (well, 26 February 2010 for South Africans).
Television
I imported the 1990s X-Men animated series on Region 1 DVD a few months back and finally made a start on it last night. I'm 4 episodes in and so far the series holds up surprisingly well - no doubt due to its detailed comic-book style animation and mature themes. What is most surprising is just how badass Wolverine is in animated form. How sad that Logan is far more feral, threatening and enigmatic in a Saturday morning cartoon than 4 live-action films, which really filed down the character's edginess into blandness.
Comments
But I totally agree that Wolverine was a lot better as a cartoon than the movie-form, even thought I still like the Hugh Jackman.
Gambit's a little over the top, too, in the cartoon series.
And Gambit is such a complete flirt...