Runester

Well, in my post about our trip to Province Town I complained about having one’s sexuallity as the theme for unrelated shops such as book stores, art galleries, etc. Then, while discussing the subject with my girlfriend (who tends to be more level headed in general) she pointed out all of the Italian Social Clubs, Irish Shops, and Polish Bakeries in Boston. Apparently, identifying with a group and using that identity in your business is not new or unique or even that interesting.

What can I say? She was right. If I can go to an Irish Gift Shop to buy imported shamrock lava lamps or something, then why not a Sisters of Sapho CD Shop to pick through their selection of Indigo Girls, Tracy Chapman, and K.D. Lang?

So, I reverse my earlier position. Though I am still not entirely comfortable with hanging out with “Men of the Foreskin United!”

Snow Update

All of her staples (all 25 of them) were removed last Monday. Her scar has healed up nicely, and she seems to be doing fine. I did feel a lump near the top of her scar and took her back to the vet, but he suspects it’s just scar tissue from the surgery.

I also asked what would happen if the cancer does come back and spread, and his sobering answer was: it would invade her lungs and make her breathing very labored.

Anyway, I’ve got an appointment for two weeks and will be taking her back every two weeks to make sure she is thoroughly checked out.

RPG Update

My Wednesday night game of The Puddle (using a customized Everway setting) is going swimmingly. I’m being mentored by a friend and very experienced GM in Michigan. Meanwhile, the players seem as motivated to play and as involved in the world as I could ever have hoped for. I certainly have made mistakes, and trying to introduce a new character (a replacement for a player who’s first character died) - I handled the situation ham-fisted. I hope to do a little repair tonight.

On the other hand, the players have begun to question their character’s motivation for the direction I’m leaning the story. So, under some mentorship, I’ve come up with an excellent way to reinvigorate them and show them that handling the plot as presented is fully inline with their character’s motivations as well as their own self-interest.

The gf and I spent today walking around Province Town, MA. We took the high-speed ferry from Boston, about a 90 minute ride. Then we walked our asses off, seeing shops and galleries and such. We took a 40 minute trolley tour around the whole thing, and learned a lot about the history. Such as: the regular population is only 4400 which swells in the summertime to 50,000 and on holiday’s like the upcoming July 4th … 100,000!

A lot of people ‘warned’ me that P’Town has a very high concentration of homosexuals. I guess they didn’t want me to be shocked or something if I were to see two men holding hands or two women kissing or something. Little ol’ me has been around the block a few times, and I wouldn’t have been bothered by this. In fact, while there were many homo’s about, the behavior was far from outragious and the whole place had an extremely welcoming and friendly feel to it. At least what I could perceive for the ~ 6 hours we spent there. I wouldn’t mind coming back, especially if we could secure a room at one of the inn’s (everything was sold-out for this holiday).

Of course, I’ve also been told that the behavior is a great deal more risque` after sun-down, when most of the tourists return to Boston. So, who knows.

The only annoyance, and slight at that, was the emphasis on homosexuality in weird places. It’s not a book store, it’s a “Gay and Lesbian Studies” book store. It’s not an art gallery, it’s a “Gay and Lesbian Experience” art gallery. Etc. Etc. Etc. Why did this bother me? Because it’s like I walked around with a T-Shirt that proclaimed loudly and to everyone I met, “Uncircumcised Male, and Proud!” and then only went to stores that catered to the uncircumsized always tried to hang-out with other’s in the ‘uncircumcized’ movement (whatever the hell that is).

At some point, it’s a private matter and sometimes I just want to buy a book at a bookstore or a CD at a music store … and not really have to stop and wonder about the state of the authors / singers / store proprietor’s sexual preference / foreskin / dietary needs / whatever.
Well, whatever floats your boat - or high speed ferry back to Boston!

[PS: I took hundreds of pictures, hoping to find a handful of good ones. I’ll try to get them posted by the end of the week.]

So, the gf and I went to see Superman Returns, in IMAX no less (with several 3D scenes!) Monday evening. I’d really, really, really been looking forward to it. She was eager, but not nearly as geeked out as I was. All the reviews were (generally) favorable, and the previews were great.

My opinion? Disappointing. It’s not that the acting wasn’t great, or that the special effects weren’t great, or that this wasn’t a faithful and well done homage to the 1978 classic - it totally was! The primary problem was that the Superman-Lois relationship stuff was very slow and didn’t forward the plot, hardly at all; plus, the villain wasn’t nearly as villainous as I’d hoped.

Lex Luthor is a great villain! Kevin Spacey is a great Lex Luthor! The plot was rediculous … yet another real estate scheme to make him rich (ala the first Superman movie)? Give me a break! In the comics and in the TV series, Lex Luthor is a billionaire, to no small part due to his genius and ruthlessness. In the first movie (and redone here) he is a scheming, conman, broke or hustling money from aging widows, or trying to purpetrate a far fetched real estate scam. If this was really the Lex Luthor of the comics, no 12 year old boy would have bothered to read it. I mean, come on! Why not insider trading or junk bonds? Ooooooh, how villainous!

As has been proven time and again, superhero movies rely heavily on the villain. The hero’s just aren’t that interesting unless they’re fighting a really interesting, and powerful villain. Spiderman has done that very well, X-Men have done this very well, Superman has not. In fact, the better Superman movie was the second one, in which he had to fight three (3) Kryptonian villains - that was awesome!
Here’s “Stephen’s Superhero Movie Formulae” - Create a complex, conflicted hero who has an extreme motive for purforming their extreme acts. Add a really powerful, and fascinating villain, either driven to their path in desperation or madness or grief. And stir in a complex world that could conceivably contain both of them. This is how you tell a good superhero story!

I’d give Superman Returns a B-.