Night of Metal

            There is no doubt in my mind that metal is alive in well, I just attended a concert at crocodile rock in Allentown PA. The bands; The Contortionist, Dying Fetus, Shadows Fall, and Hatebreed all put on a fantastic show. Crocodile rock is a smaller venue in comparison to other places I have been, but it offered a lot, except there was no alcohol served in previous times. Side note I don’t condone and drinking and driving its irresponsible and dangerous, please be safe. Continuing on, the place offers great food and a great atmosphere which compared to most places lack in one way or another. If given the opportunity, Crocodile Rock is definitely a venue to go see I recommend it.

            The first band, The Contortionist, was really interesting; there were a very different style of metal than what I’m used to. The crowd though didn’t really get into it as much as the later bands, but there were a few people having fun with it. There songs were good and they did well, but it still wasn’t the best of the night. The next band was Dying Fetus, which was very interesting from the get go. As soon as the band started, the mosh pit just erupted and people were going at it immediately. The band had been using two lead singers that alternated which is something that I have not seen in other bands. It was really interesting experience, since this too is a form of metal I have not listen too very often either.

            The best part for me at least was Shadows Fall, which put on an amazing show in my mind compared to the others. The crowd this time around was really into it with a large mosh pit forming right next to where I was standing. This was the first time I have ever been involved in any way with a mosh pit with people knocking into people and being forced into as I was trying to listen to the band. I constantly had to watch the pit to see if anyone was coming right for me and I had my guard up constantly. I did have fun though and my friend with me was all over place as she went crowd surfing and went into the mosh pit.

            When Hatebreed came on, it was intense with people crowding in like cattle at a ranch; it was hard to even move. This time people went overboard with the pit and numerous times security had to come and physically persuade people to leave. It was very scary at times with so many people going insane to the point where the lead singer asked people to stop fighting, which I have been told is a common occurrence at Hatebreed concerts. The Concert was incredible with so many good bands playing and a lot nice people there. My next concert will be on March 6^th, With In Flames and Demon Hunter playing once again at Crocodile rock.

The return of The Fictional Character Fiction Fights

The Combatants

The Joker:  Chemically whitened skin and a face with a permanent grin, the joker comes off as unimposing and seemingly physically weak.  (Though this varies from writer to writer as even DC cannot get the character’s origin straight).   He has been known to employ weapons of his own making usually in the form of deadly prop weapons.  Highly intelligent in both Chemistry and Engineering the Joker is wild (haha see what I did there poker joke)……..  But in all seriousness, the Joker is not someone to fuck with.  Immune to poison due to his own work with poison and his constant abuse of it, he is even immune to his own poison which makes its victims laugh to death and die with a grin on their face.  It is believed that the joker has what is known as “Super Sanity” this is a condition either from extreme trauma or lack of knowing what is truly real.  It is a constant reinventing of oneself to suit what the joker needs for the day (as displayed in The Dark Knight’s Joker Portrayed by Heath Ledger when the joker tells varying stories on “How he got these scars”).  And to his credit the Joker has been known to put together some deviously cruel plans that make even fans of the Joker cringe (case and point, Barbara Gordon’s origin of how she became Oracle).

Kefka Palazzo :  Magitek Elite and General of the Gestahl Empire.  The man is a Psychopath and a nihilist, these two form into some of the most memorable and horrific scenes in a Final Fantasy Game.  He employs tactics that would and have made other generals in the empire cringe.  Having poisoned the water in the city of Doma in order to weaken forces in order to easier siege and destroy the forces he faced.  But he does not stop there.  Oh no oh no he gets worse.  Later in the game after they reach the home of the Warring Triad Espers and with their power he kills the emperor and reshapes the world and becomes the god of the ruined world he has created.  How do you talk to a man who has never loved, never believed in love?  How do you talk to a man who has never had friends, never tried to be friends with anyone?  His only driving ambition is to watch the world burn and destroy everything.

THE FIELD OF BATTLE:

The battle comes each sending out lackies of their own.  Harley Quinn the Joker’s deranged lover willingly takes the field to defend her puddin from the military forces of Kefka.  Armed to the teeth with joker’s weapons and spraying joker’s deadly gas into the mess of men and men riding Magitek Armor.  To aid Harley is joker’s numerous cronies who are either too afraid to fight back against the joker or are trying to get in good with the clown prince of crime.  Guns, explosives deaths on both sides, Harley and the cronies eventually will over power the forces of the former Gestahl empire.   The joker dressed in military garb to suit the mood, will stride out to meet the clown general Kefka.  The two wax political and laugh at each other and the losses of their worn and tired troops.  Neither one will be able to get a word in edge wise on the other.  The two clowns will fight each not gaining an upper hand despite magic and other seemingly cheap tactics the other can throw at each other.  The two will fight off and on until they decide that their evil genius minds can be better suited to conquer than to fight each other.  Too the teams credit they could and probably would end up taking over the world.  But no union is harmonious as neither trusts the other.  With the world now split and both sides having taken armies and generals the world crumbling at their feet as the Kefka and The Joker fight each other into a stalemate.

WINNER:  NO ONE……seriously no one.  This fight is a draw.  Anti-Magic is not beyond the scope of what the Joker can counter.  Immune to poison Kefka cannot hope to poison him.  The two would see the brilliance in the other and work together for a time until they realized that neither would be able to work with the other and the fight would resume with the world suffering as the two fought for supremacy.   When two psychopaths fight no one wins.

Next Friday I will be attending a concert of epic proportions, I will be at Crocodile Rock in Allentown, PA seeing The Contortionist, Dying Fetus, Shadows Fall, and Hatebreed. If this will be anything like Eluveitie and Children of Bodom, this night will definitely be an experience i will never forget, Rock on \m/

Bringing back Fiction Fights

I have not abandoned you nerds.  I have been in works with my brain in bringing back a segment from my old Blog that I had a lot of fun writing.  The Fictional Character Fiction Fight.  It is a Segment where I pit two fictional characters against each other and how I see the fight going and who would win over all.

Who will be going to the Fiction Fight Arena.

Kefka Palazzo Vs The Joker

Putting together a Nerd Think Tank

One lone person can not write an entire show.......... Well he can try but it may not turn out very good.  So here is what I am thinking.

1. Set up a group of nerds
2. Come up with ideas for Shows
3. Set up a fund to send Contributors To Conventions
4. Set up the Podcast
5. Keep coming up with Ideas
6. Design and Sell Shirts
7. All sorts of other ideas

I want this project to be awesome and profitable and take the nerd media by storm.

Sucker Punched through the Inception Wall

Sucker Punch, how do I describe this movie?  While I understand it is an intricate story, with deep meanings and subtle undertones………… The movie is downright confusing.  It is like in inception the deeper you go into the levels of dreams, the more unstable the reality becomes…  What do I mean?  Sucker Punch is a movie about a girl named Baby Doll, whose mother just passed away.  She and her little sister are placed into the care of their evil Step Father who I think killed the mother for the inheritance and rage quit being nice when he found out his wife left everything to the kids.  The opening of the movie is tense with little dialog just Baby Doll accidently killing her little sister while trying to save her and shooting her step father in the shoulder.  Which leads to her being admitted into a psyche ward.  Here is where things get hairy.

The psyche ward Lennox Home for the Criminally unstable, is well run by assholes and seems to only have female attendees and no males.  Here is where it goes Inception on you.  You are introduced to the stage……..  Briefly get used to that cause well lets just say things come and go at an alarmingly fast pace and well it is either never seen again or is touched upon later but subtlety to the point where you forget about it.  To cope with being in a psyche ward, baby doll conceptualizes the psyche ward as a brothel/orphanage for girls.  Here the girls are trained to be dancers and sold to high rollers for sex or so it is implied.   During one of her dance lessons baby doll enters the third level of inception and meets the wise man, who gives her a katana and twin pistols.  We saw what happened the last time she used a gun why in the hell would you give her an upgraded model. ….  Back on course and to the point.

The wise man gives Baby Doll a mission, collect five items to win your freedom.  By finding a map;  fire, knife and a key, and the fifth item being something mysterious she won’t know about until the right moment.  This movie could be worth watching if it wasn’t so fucking jumpy and cryptic.  Like I was saying earlier it switches reality not once, but twice.   It briefly explains that Baby Doll’s dancing hypnotizes those who watch her.  This the other dancers Sweet Pea, Blondie, Amber and Rocket use to steal the items Baby Doll is looking for…….  Each time they want to get an item Baby dances, closes her eyes and boom fading cut to the third reality.  Missions where baby and the girls are kick ass chicks.  The vivid imagination of baby doll where she can seemingly properly wield a katana and guns and make her partners just as combat awesome………  Let us not forget she ia imagining the brothel/casino/ orphanage to escape thinking she is in an insane asylum.  Oh did I mention she is going to be lobotomized in five days.  Maybe that slipped my mind because THE FUCKING MOVIE ONLY SHOWS YOU ABOUT THIRTY SECONDS OF HER ABOUT TO HAVE THE SURGERY.  

This movie could have been awesome, it is visually appealing, and the girls are fantastic to look at.  The dialog is alright at best and choppy at worst.  This movies glaring flaw it throws way to much at much at you way to fast.  I keep bringing up inception but at least inception took the time to explain that hey we are going to fuck you mentally.  Sucker Punch, well it sucker punches you in the face leaving you stunned and confused.

I give this movie a 7 out of 10.

The Return of Minds Eye Theater

The creators of The Minds Eye Theater have merged with By Night Studios who have a good standing Relationship with CCP Games, the same company who is backing White Wolf Games.  What does this mean.  This means that LARPers who loved Mind Eyes Theater have a new venue and a chance for new books to come to them in the near future.

We will keep you updated when they release new stuff.

UPDATE:  By Night Entertainment LLC has announced they will be starting their Mind's Eye Theater Run with Vampire: The Masquerade.  I can not wait to see what they are going to do with this.