The long-awaited Bonnaroo Post (well, the first one)

Bonnaroo is not a concert. Bonnaroo is not an event. Bonnaroo is a universe that you inhabit for one weekend, where the normal world's laws do not exactly apply. Let's say you're taking a plane there. Maybe it isn't so obvious on your first flight; after all there are lots of reasons to fly from New York to Detroit. But it's certainly clear when you get to your second flight. There's only one reason to fly from Detroit to Nashville, at least on the morning of June 14th. So your whole flight is wearing trucker hats and Classic rock t-shirts. The men have scruffy beards and the girls have hemp bracelets. Just in case you mistake Bonnaroo for Woodstock, you have the two girls who've printed out the schedule of bands, circling the artists they want to see with sharpie, reminding you we live in the information age. And of course, you've got those aforementioned scruffy guys hitting on those girls, attempting to woo them with their knowledge gained from previous Bonnaroos. If you were making a movie about a plane, you'd probably emphasize that the characters are a random assortment of people who all find themselves linked by virtue of their being on a plane together. Not so on a June 14th flight to Nashville. The people on this plane have all found themselves there for the one reason: Bonnaroo.

(Full disclosure: In true Sam fashion, I find myself sitting next to the ONE person on my plane who isn't going to Bonnaroo. He's a businessman who plays with his blackberry and reads Automobile Weekly. I take a nap on the flight.)

You know you're going to Bonnaroo when your bag never shows up at the baggage claim, but the Sam Roberts Band does, with all of their gear spray painted with the letters "SRB". As soon as they've left, your suitcase appears under mysterious circumstances. This is the price you pay for having the same name as one of the bands playing at Bonnaroo. Well, it's the price you pay if you're me.

Bonnaroo is the sort of camping event where you crack open your first beer before you start setting up your tent. Bonnaroo is also the sort of event where some people start drinking before they've left the nearby Walmart's parking lot and, as a result, fail to make it out of said parking lot. Those are the same people who ask Teal if they can get into her backpack. When your come-ons are that pathetic, you're probably going to miss the Sam Roberts band, who are playing their set in a few hours.

To explain, we are at the Walmart because we need supplies. Having flown down to Tennessee, we lack basic necessities like food and, more importantly, alcohol. Walmart is pretty good for solving that problem; we stock up on chips, granola bars, cereal, and Gushers. Also, beer. For myself, I also purchase a pretty solid amount of beef jerky. I have no intention of buying the insanely overpriced food inside the Bonnaroo area. Teal and Kelsey laugh at my insistence on buying jerky, but I'll have the last laugh when it's Saturday night and I'm eating something that actually has substance. At least, that's what I think at the time. In actuality, it never really becomes a big deal.

We run into a problem when, after purchasing a weekend's worth of junk food, we realize that we have no real way of getting to Bonnaroo, which is roughly two miles away from the Walmart. We aren't about to carry our huge bags and all the food for that distance so we resolve to steal a Walmart shopping cart. Take that, big business! This marks our first steps toward hippie-ism. I hadn't wanted to become a Bonnaroo hippie, but between this and an offhand comment Kelsey makes about it costing seven dollars to take a shower, I realize I am fighting an uphill battle.

After a trip to a liquor store (my being 21 comes in handy again), we find ourselves walking down the side of the highway pushing a shopping cart loaded up with food, alcohol, and our suitcases. We can't walk in the shoulder because it has been turned into an extra lane specifically for cars going to Bonnaroo. Unlikely as it might seem, we are actually moving faster than the line of cars. We proceed to become a highlight of Bonnaroo for many of the people who see us trudging along the grass with our stolen shopping cart. The hike is not a highlight for us, though. It's sweltering, we're tired, and the grass creates drag like you wouldn't believe. By the time we make it to the Bonnaroo grounds, the sun has set completely.

Once we get into the camping area, our struggles pay off. We get to cut the line of cars and manage to grab a great camping spot. It's right next to the line of porta-potties, which turns out to not be nearly as bad as one would think (specifically, as Teal thinks), but more importantly, it's close to the entrance to Centeroo and the watering hole. This the part where I break out that beer I mentioned earlier and begin setting up the tent. It's something of a disaster for a while but we eventually get it set up. The rain cover proves especially difficult and we enlist Teal's friend Wes to help. We pay him in Coors Light, which has already become warm. By day two it will be all but undrinkable. We will still finish it way before the weekend is over.

Despite our best efforts, we, like our friends in the Walmart parking lot, miss the Sam Roberts band set, although we can hear it pretty well from our camp site. In spite of my owning his first CD (a gift from Charlie, who found it incredibly amusing that a Sam Roberts band exists), I don't even recognize the music until the last song. We do catch a couple of bands, namely Apollo Sunshine, Tea Leaf Green, and a little bit of Rodrigo y Gabriela. The sets are cool, but ultimately a bit unremarkable, which is to say that I'm tired and slightly drunk (at the time, not while writing this entry) and I don't really remember much about them as a result. We stay up late into the night playing card games and drinking drinks. There is a sense that Bonnaroo exists outside of time. The past day seems as if it has been a year and, as we plan our schedule for the next day, we are reminded that the party has only just begin.

TO BE CONTINUED...
(for more pictures, see my Facebook photos. It's just impractical to put them all here.)

In which Sam decides to actually post ABOUT work

I've found that one of the really cool parts about working at Marvel, besides reading lots of free comics, is one that I didn't really expect, namely photocopying.

I guess I should clarify. I'm not talking about photocopying some random skrull-related issues of X-men to send to Brian Michael Bendis. What I enjoy is photocopying hand-drawn inked artwork. There's something magical about taking an 11" x 17" inked page and shrinking it down to 8.5 x 11. All of a sudden the clean lines become even crisper, the large black regions, loosely colored with a big marker, become pure black. In short, the already-beautiful artwork becomes, well, this:


(Well, not technically this, because this is a DC page, but it's by Phil Jimenez and I've been scanning his work lately. Also, talking to him about The Bionic Woman. Nice guy. Anyways...)

It's a moment where you can really see the process happening, and I find it very cool to be part of, even though when you actually think about it, it's just photocopying. I guess intern work is what you make of it?

I'm Getting Better At This...

Me: Good Evening, Eleven Madison Park.
Guest: Hi, I'd like to make a reservation.
Me: Of course, for when?
Guest: Tonight.
Me: For how many guests?
Guest: Fifteen.
Me: I'm sorry Jake but we don't have any reservations available for 15 guests this evening.
Jake: Damn.

Euroinvasion!

So my brother leaves for Europe tomorrow (along with the rest of my family, though they're only gone for a little over a week) and he and the friends he will be traveling with have started up a blog. So, mostly for my own reference, but also if you're interested, here's a link to the Euroblog

The Thing: The Game

So there's this movie called The Thing; the famous version is from the 80s and was directed by John Carpenter though it's actually a remake of some movie from the 50s. The premise, in brief, is that a bunch of scientists working at an isolated research base in Antarctica accidentally come into contact with an alien that takes over people's bodies. It's like a small-scale Invasion of the Body Snatchers except when the aliens are exposed they turn into giant kickass monster aliens. Also, it's got lots of flamethrower action. As if I need to say it, Aliens + Paranoia + Flamethrowers = awesome.

When I was in high school, I saw the movie and was inspired to design a game based around it. The game is meant to be played in a smallish group and as an ongoing game, which is to say you play it while also going about your daily activities. It works best in a school-like situation where you come into contact with the same people frequently. I also suggest playing it as a gambling game, with something like a dollar or five as a buy-in. This just encourages people to stay in the game and makes it more fun and intense. If you do play for money, I'd say the player who starts as the Thing should break even, as should the second place player. First place gets the rest. Obviously, though, it's up to you.

STARTING/ORGANIZING THE GAME

The game would be best done with a computerized system, but I'm lazy and don't really know how to do that, so I'm sticking to low-tech means. The most high-tech it gets is email, which even my grandmother can handle. To start the game, you gather everyone together and, maybe using a deck of cards, randomly select one player to start as The Thing. It's important that the other players do not know which player is The Thing. Every other player is a Human. Also, one player (not the thing) randomly starts with a flamethrower. Don't worry, it's not an actual flamethrower, just a symbolic one. Use whatever you want to represent it, though it must be something clearly visible, like a bracelet.

PLAYING THE GAME

The Thing can infect a Human by getting him/her alone in a room. When this occurs, The Thing informs the player that he/she has been infected. Any player who is infected immediately becomes The Thing. The Thing who infected the human remains The Thing. Thus, the balance of power shifts, as The Thing eventually overwhelms the Humans. For the purposes of determining whether a Human counts as alone, other Humans and non-players count but players who are The Thing do not.

The Thing may not infect any Human carrying the flamethrower. However, any Human may ask the player with the flamethrower to give it to him/her. The player with the flamethrower must give it up and may not ask for it back for 24 hours. Others may still ask for the flamethrower though. The Thing may not ask for the flamethrower, but if it somehow comes into The Thing's possession, it is rendered useless for the duration of the game.

When a player is added to The Thing, he/she should inform the player who began the game as The Thing. This player should keep a list and pass it out to all players who are The Thing on a regular basis, presumably by email. This player is also in charge of announcing when the game is over. The game ends when only one Human, the game's winner, remains. Other players should congratulate this player on being probably the most paranoid motherfucker on the planet.

And, well, that's it. Go get scared and stop trusting your friends... I mean, have fun!

Culture Blogging again

Um, this is bad news. I'm starting to lose track of the culture I'm ingesting. Wow, that sounds really snobby when I actually put it into words that way. But it's easier than listing everything that I'm looking at. I mean, it just started as "I'm gonna make a list of all the books I read for a year. And also the movies I see. And also the comics I read. And I guess I might as well throw in concerts too. And TV shows... is that even reasonable?" And, well, here we are. Let's see what I can remember.

MOVIES:

I finally saw one! Woo!
-Ocean's Thirteen. While not at all life-changing, this was exactly what I wanted it to be. Fun, funny, pretty.. but I'm sure you know all that. What I'd like to mention is the music. David Holmes has been providing music for the Ocean's movies since the first one--wait, lemme check and make sure he did this one too... okay, he did. So yeah, I think he's one of the poster children for composers that really add a lot to movies without anyone knowing. I bought a copy of the Ocean's Twelve soundtrack and still listen to it a lot. His music is a really brilliant combination of effortless cool and complicated rhythms. He blends jazz and electronic into a music that feels simultaneously retro and futuristic. My point is, he really captures the feel of the films. I think a more traditional score would really ruin the whole thing.
Conclusion: If you haven't seen the movie or are planning on seeing it again, pay a little attention to the music. Trust me, it's worth.

COMICS:

Wow, let me see what I can remember...
-Ed Brubaker's complete run of Captain America up to and past the infamous death issue. It's really fantastic. Brubaker eschews the superhero feel for something a bit grittier, but not in a Punisher sort of way. Brubaker reimagines the Captain America comic as more akin to a supr-hero version of 24. It's less "There's a robot rampaging through Manhattan!" and more "A mysterious bad guy has gotten a hold of the Cosmic Cube. We have to get it back before he levels Manhattan!" There are twists within twists, super cliffhangers, and they manage to break one of the cardinal rules of the Marvel Universe without really offending any of the die-hard fans. Not that it means much to most of my readers, presumably, but that's a pretty big deal. Good stuff.

-The New Avengers. There's a reason Brian Michael Bendis is the most famous comic book writer who isn't Joss Whedon or Stephen King: His dialogue and characterization is just brilliant. His New Avengers really revitalizes the whole idea of the Avengers. The team, which some people have seen as absurd (What? Luke Cage?), works so much better than you'd expect it to and the interactions between the teammates really drive the series. Plus, he writes perfect Spider-man dialogue. They just took a radical direction, in which any of the heroes could be a shape-shifting alien spy. It's like The Thing only with super-heroes!
(Full Disclosure: I <3 The Thing, as a concept even more than the actual movie, even though the movie is excellent. In high school I really wanted to play a full-immersion game based on The Thing where people just carried on with their normal lives. You know... I have a lot of time on my hands today so I think I'll post about it later.)

-Thor: Blood Oath. This was cool, don't have much to say though.

-The Thing: Idol of Millions. Ditto.

-Iron Man: Hypervelocity. Get this: Iron Man builds a new suit capable of uploading his personality in case he should die. He promptly gets attacked and winds up in a coma. The newly sentient Iron Man suit freaks out, goes on the run, and starts upgrading itself to process things at computer speed rather than human speed, while simultaneously fighting off an entire SHIELD helicarrier and a sexy virus that's implanted herself in his consciousness. Its six issues are absolutely crazy, fast-paced (thus the title), and bizarre. Cyberpunk is most certainly not dead.

-Bullet Points. In an alternate universe, an assassin kills the scientist behind Captain America's super-serum a day earlier, as well as his body guard, a certain Ben Parker. This results in a totally backwards Marvel Universe in which Steve Rogers is Iron Man, Reed Richards is the grizzled head of SHIELD, and Peter Parker turns into the Hulk and saves the world from Galactus through sheer anger (and of course, his love of Aunt May). Pretty cool stuff, and I really enjoyed the art by Tommy Lee Edwards (I say that like I know who he is, other than that he did the art to Bullet Points).

Um, I think that might be it, besides random new issues of series I've been following and stuff. I'll add anything else I can think of.

(real) BOOKS:

I finally finished The Children of Hurin, the new Tolkien book. It definitely isn't as good The Lord of the Rings, or The Hobbit, but it has a elegant simplicity to it. That's not to say it isn't simple, but it's not epic and complex in the same way that Lord of the Rings is. It's more character-centric. I do think it would make an excellent movie though. Hmm, now who would play Turin?

TV:

-Last week's episode of Entourage was simply amazing. That's all.

Okay, that's it for now. I didn't do music, cause I'm going to do a seperate Bonnaroo post... well, with any luck I'll do a Bonnaroo post, especially since the New York Times did a blog about it that I Found thoroughly underwhelming despite the nice pictures of the bands that are far better than most of mine.

Adieu for now!

more on the culture-blogging... hope nobody minds that I'm basically using my blog just for reviews of comics I've been reading/

COMICS:
-Thunderbolts... yes, all 114 or so issues. I'd recommend it to anybody with a passing interest in comic books. Though it has its ups and downs like all series that have been running for that long, its premise (villains trying to be heroes) never gets old and neither does its infatuation with weird no-name third-rate villains. It's a lot of fun.
-The first volume of She-hulk. This is better than it ought to be, simply because superhero law is really amusing. Can a ghost summoned by Dr. Strange testify in his own murder trial? What happens when a villain sues a superhero who left him in a full body cast? Is it okay to use comic books as legal precedent? Comic books don't have enough wackiness these days, but this one still does.
-The Sentry: Reborn. Here's the pitch: What if Superman were a paranoid schizophrenic with agoraphobia? The book is kind of a cross between Superman and Memento. Good stuff. Kinda gave me a headache though...

One of these days I'll write a real entry