Lots of stuff to talk about...

• Christmas is just around the corner....
• I haven't written about this much yet, but I have been working on a new play. We are currently in our second weekend and so far we have sold out every performance! The show is called "The Book of Liz" written by David and Amy Sedaris. This is my first show with a new troupe and I have really enjoyed working with them so far. I designed the lighting and sound plots for the show. I am pretty happy with how things turned out and am glad that the production has been well received. I hope that the company allows me to work with them again.
• This may shock some loyal readers to hear, but I have actually just finished reading a real book. (And am working on a second.) Granted they are real books about comic books but hey. It's a start. The one I just finished is Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America by Bradford W. Wright. I really enjoyed it a lot, and actually learned a bit. It brought to my attention a lot of characters and stories that I had never been exposed to and now am dieing to read. If anyone can tell me where to find any reprints of the sci-fi comics published by EC Comics in the 50's I would certainly appreciate it. They sound interesting.
• Also this past weekend I picked up a new first person shooter for my PC called BioShock. This game is pretty darn awesome. One of the best looking video games that I have ever seen. It is also "don't play at night" scary. The sound design is especially well done and really draws you into the game quite nicely. The enemies walk around ranting and raving to themselves before they see you and are just so scary. I am not too far into the game but I look to put some QT in with it this weekend. I love this game because there are enemies in the game that really give you a sense of accomplishment when you bring them down. The first time I bagged a Big Daddy might be one of my proudest video game moments ever. What an intense fight. I'll keep folks posted as I progress through the game.
• Final note of the post. I had the chance to see the new Rob Zombie "Halloween" remake this past weekend. I'll say this. It wasn't great, but wasn't the disaster I thought it was going to be. Just sort of average. I certainly enjoyed it more then Rob Zombie's other two movies. However, I can honestly say that if it wasn't a remake of a movie that I hold very near and dear to my heart I probably would not have even thought about going to see it. This certainly is not the movie that I love. It is it's own beats to be certain. A rewritten screen play courtesy of Mr. Zombie basically gives us a movie in two halves. The first half focusses more upon a young Michael Myers and tries to shed some light on what made him into the monster that he is. The second half of the movie focuses upon the tale we are more familiar with from the John Carpenter film as Michael stalks and kills his way through Haddonfield Il, on Halloween night. The problem with this new story structure is that even though we might get a better idea of why Michael has gone off the deep end. (He was the product of a very abusive home) It really does not explain why Michael takes the course of action he does in the second half of the film as he stalks Laurie Strode who is revealed to be his sister. (Apparently this piece of information comes to light in the sequel to the 1978 original.) Sadly, another disappointment however expected it was is that under Mr. Zombie's direction the story has lost all of the subtle touchs that made the first film so frightening. Mr. Zombie as well as his Michael for that matter ratchet up the violence and gore ten fold in this new film. More people die in the first half hour of this film then in the entire John Carpenter film, and boy is it bloody. I think I will at some point write a longer critique and comparison of the two films. I just wanted to get some of my initial thoughts out there.

HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND FOLKS!