I am back at last from GenCon SoCal in Anaheim, so those of you waiting for e-mails back from me should be seeing them soon. The show went pretty well, thought it would have gone better if we had a new product there. Still, it was good to get out and spread the GR love. Also nice to catch up with folks like Bruce Harlick, Christian Gossett, Jeff Tidball, Ken Hite, Keith Baker, Stan!, JD Wiker, Jim Pinto, and Paul Tevis.

This year the dealer’s hall was only open three days. To make that up to us, someone decided to extend the hours of each day, which meant 10-7 Friday and Saturday and 9-4 on Sunday. With only Nik and I there and her out of the booth doing Blue Rose demos Friday and Saturday that meant I did a lot of booth duty. Saturday I was at the booth from 9:30 am until 7:15 pm. I don’t know how it was with other vendors, but I didn’t find the extra hour a day too helpful. I don’t think we got extra sales and I’d have rather have knocked off at 6 pm and gone to dinner earlier.

Due to my booth duties, I did not get a chance to do much else but eat and do some hanging out. I made one tour through the dealer’s hall and didn’t see anything that I just had to have. I was hoping to see more historical miniatures on hand, but it seems like those folks didn’t support the show this year. Did the usual trading at show’s end and brought home Spycraft 2.0, Iron Kingdoms World Guide, and A Game of Thrones Deluxe, all of which look quite nice. I also traded with a vendor who was selling foam swords. Not usually my kind of thing, but I thought Kate would enjoy them. I traded for two and will give one to her for Xmas and keep one to defend myself. Hope I don’t regret that!

Sunday Paul interviewed me for his Podcast, Have Games, Will Travel, and that was good fun. We finished the interview and then kept talking. Ten minutes later we realized we should have talked about that stuff during the interview, so he turned on the equipment and we got back into it. Not sure when it’ll be available, but I look forward to hearing the final result.

On my return I got right into the holiday spirit by going to court. Yeah, baby. As you may or may not recall, I got a ticket for opening the rear driver side door of a cab into a minivan that simply couldn’t wait for the cab to let us out. I argued my case in front of a judge yesterday, pointing out that if the cab had pulled all the way in or the minivan had been even a little patient, this accident would not have happened. He was sympathetic and reduced the ticket from $110 to $50. I was hoping he’d just throw the thing out, but the reduction was better than nothing. And here I never though opening a door could be a crime.

I went to a punk show at El Corazon with Rick and Jimmer tonight. I only knew the headline band, the show was on an off night, and the crowd was pretty thin, so I wasn’t expecting much. I’m totally glad I went though, because it turned out to be a great show from start to finish.

Here’s something I never thought I’d say: I saw a punk band from China tonight. Beijing to be precise. They were called Brain Failure and they smoked. Sharp musicianship, enormous energy, and a fierce desire to kick ass and take names on their first American tour won me over by the end of their first song. They mixed up punk, hardcore, and even a bit of ska. I guess you might call them China’s answer to Rancid. Good stuff.

The River City Rebels were up next. Originally from New England, they relocated to Tacoma six months ago so it seems like I’ll have more chances to see them. They were a total glam punk outfit, a modern distillation of New York City, circa 1974. Think New York Dolls and Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers. Hell, you could practically see the ghosts of Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan floating above the stage. There was also some glam hair in effect and hints of cross-dressing. They hit all the right notes stylistically. More importantly, they also rocked. Good trashy songs delivered with lots of attitude. They dragged out their last song a little too long, but otherwise it was a fun set.

The Street Dogs headlined. They are a fairly new band featuring Mike McColgan, the original singer of the Dropkick Murphys, and a couple of guys from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. As their name indicates, they do straight up Clash-influenced street punk. No surprise then that they covered “Career Opportunities” in the middle of their set. I’ve heard both Street Dogs records and they are pretty decent, but the band is better live than in the studio. I haven’t seen McColgan perform since 1996 or so and he’s developed a commanding presence. Great voice too, with a lot more range than the Murphys’ current singer. The band was tight, the songs were catchy, and the crowd was into it. I would definitely go see them again.

Now I’m back home and I’m packing for GenCon SoCal. Nicole and I have to leave at 4 frickin’ am. Another grand adventure in air travel I’m sure. I counted up tonight and realized this is my 11^th trip this year. Jesus H.

Before I go, I must share a few choice quotes from an article in the Stranger, one of Seattle’s free newspapers. The new issue came out today and it has a one-page story on Worldwide D&D; Game Day. It’s pretty funny, though I doubt this is the sort of PR WotC hoped would come out of the event.

Every once in awhile comes a rare press release hyping an event to which we wouldn’t send our worst enemy. Until now.

“This translates into vaginas healed over from disuse, penises ignored in favor of 20-sided dice, and just one…more…magic…missile!

“Can I crush my enemies and drink deep of their life force while laughing and toasting my allies?” I asked her.
“Sure!” she replied
“Can I live forever?”
“Of course! If you die, you can be resurrected!”
“Can I have sex?”
“Um…sure,” she said. “If it’s intrinsic to your character, or if you need to, I guess.”

As we left the Science Fiction Museum, Craig beautifully summed up our experience with the highest praise possibly paid to D&D;: “Had I discovered this game in adolescence,” he said, “it probably would have spared me from many a Saturday night spent masturbating alone in my parent’s basement.”

One thing traveling is good for is catching up on all the bad nerd movies I skipped in the theaters. On recent trips I saw on planes or in hotel rooms:

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Some nice production design (the Nautilus is cool, for example) but that’s about all that’s good. It’s amazing that people will pay money to license a good story, then throw it out and write another one. And Tom Sawyer as a pistol-packing Secret Service agent? Please.

Star Wars, Episode III: Yes, I finally took the plunge. It was certainly the better than the first two, but in the way that a headshot is better than being strangled. Again, some very nice production design, but attached to a movie with a narrative that simply fails. I was halfway with it until the scene when Anakin falls to the dark side. He’s trying to save the Republic and is fooled into helping to kill Mace. Then, literally an hour later, he is slaughtering Jedi children with a light saber. Did not buy that at all. Then the entire Jedi order is wiped out in about 10 minutes, shot down like chumps by a bunch of mooks. Bah.

Fantastic Four: This was the worst of the bunch. Oh god, what a piece of crap. I think it’s even worse than the Daredevil movie and that’s saying something.

Little did I realize that an even worse fate awaited me at home. Last night Kate suckered me into watching the Country Bears movie on the Disney Channel. Yes, the one based on the theme park ride that features singing anthropomorphic bears. It’s fine as a kids movie and I guess it could have been worse. I mean, I didn’t want to stab myself in the brain for every second of it. I will have to agree with Stephen Colbert on the bear issue though. Bears, you are on notice!

The oldest known printed recipe for chowder appeared in the Boston Evening Post on September 23, 1751. Here it is, in its entirety:

First lay some Onions to keep the Pork from burning,
Because in Chouder there can be no turning:
Then lay some Pork in Slices very thin,
Thus you in Chouder must always begin.
Next lay some Fish cut crossways very nice,
Then season well with Pepper, Salt, and Spice;
Parsley, Sweet-Majoram, Savory, and Thyme,
Then Biscuit next which must be soak’d some Time.
Thus your Foundation laid, you will be able
To raise a Chouder, high as Tower of Babel:
For by repeating o’re the Same again,
You may make Chouder for a thousand Men,
Last Bottle of Claret, with Water eno’ to smother ’em
You’l have a Mess which some call Omnium gather ’em.

That’s what I call style. It’s one part recipe, one part poetry, and a heaping scoop of hyperbole. I demand my Tower of Babel Chowder now!

I got back from our trip to Nottingham a few days ago and have been trying to catch up with things and get over my jet lag. Time spent at Games Workshop HQ is never wasted and we had a very productive week of discussions and meetings. Can’t say anything about our topics, so you’ll have to use your imagination. Suffice to say there’s plenty of coolness to come.

The trip’s timing was impeccable. The Subhumans (UK), one of my favorite punk bands of all time, happened to be playing in Nottingham last Tuesday night. The venue, Junction 7, was literally five blocks from my hotel. It doesn’t get much more convenient than that! Rob and Nicole bagged out due to jet lag, so I went off myself and had a grand time. Nik and I had seen the Subhumans in Seattle a couple of years back, but Junction 7 was maybe a quarter the size of that club. Seeing a band is a dark and dingy club with 100 other punks is really the way to do it. They played a nice selection of stuff, from the earliest EPs to the latest CDs. The new songs were topical and catchy and you just can’t argue with classics like Subvert City, Rats, Apathy, and Religious Wars. GW flying me to England to see the Subhumans trumps WotC sending me to Atlanta to see the Misfits (who were playing at DragonCon years ago). Big ups to toy soldiers!

I now have a slight breather until next week, when we leave for GenCon SoCal in lovely Anaheim. Can’t be too sedate, you see. Wouldn’t be seemly.

Just a few random bits before I head off on another trip in the morning. I likely won’t be updating until next weekend.

· I was browsing at Easy St. Records last night and saw this newish Gang of Four CD. It had the most hilarious marketing copy stickered onto it. Dig this sales technique: “The triumphant return of the band that invented originality!” I mean, come on, how can you argue with the very inventors of originality?
· Juan Cole, the guy who does the aptly named blog Informed Content, has a really interesting article on Salon.com today. It’s called “All the Vice President’s Men” and it’s about the cabal of neocons Cheney surrounded himself with and the effect they’ve had on, well, everything for the past five years. Worth checking out: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/10/28/vice_president/index_np.html
· I’ve been really digging on Tiger Army lately. I saw them live last year they put on a great show. I’m investigating other psychobilly bands because the combo of rockabilly and punk rock really works for me. I hope this isn’t a sign of old age.
· In between dinner and the Atomic Bombshells burlesque show last night, the gang stopped into a club called Chopstix for a while. The place has two dueling pianists who take requests from the crowd and play at ludicrous decibels. It is a favorite spot for drunken bachelorette parties as I understand it and last night just about the entire female audience was made up of skinny white girls in their early 20s. So the pianists lay off the keys to sing hometown hero Sir Mix-A-Lot’s epic “Baby Got Back.” The guys recruit three girls to get up on stage and dance while they rap and the irony was overwhelming. This is a song that starts off “I like big butts” and here we had three super skinny girls shaking their bone racks. They get an A for effort, but really girls, that song is not about you. I tried to change the mood of the room with a request for “Six Pack” by Black Flag but this only befuddled the pianists.

I got back from Ft. Wayne on Monday night and then I’m flying out on another business trip on Saturday morning. I’ve got a big pile of stuff to do before I go and my Seattle interlude is flying by. In good news I finished the WFRP adventure I’ve been working on yesterday. Huzzah. Next couple of days it’s going to be contracts, payments, comps, and other administrative delights. On the upside, I’ve been invited out tonight to celebrate the forthcoming indictments of various crooks and liars with booze and burlesque and that sounds plenty good to me.

The Alliance Open House was very good. It’s worth the trip to meet and interact with several hundred retailers, show off our assorted product lines, and pimp our upcoming books. The second day of the show is a warehouse sale and Alliance is nice enough to let manufacturers partake. This is my yearly excuse to pick up a pile of Osprey books and I did my patriotic duty in that regard. It’s probably a good thing Osprey does not have a subscription program or I’d be broke.

One of the books I picked up was the Russian Civil War (1) the Red Army. Reading it in my hotel room Sunday night I was overcome with a powerful and dangerous idea. It would not be difficult to come up with Flames of War army lists for the Russian Civil War and British company Peter Pig makes a line of Russian Civil War miniatures in 15mm scale. Wargaming with Cossacks, Chekists, Red Guards, the Czech Legion, foreign interventionists, and Makhnovists—oh yeah, baby. Not to mention armored trains. When I got home I checked out the Peter Pig website and discovered that they even make armored train models in the proper scale. I may be doomed.

It’s not often that I get to say this, but Wizards of the Coast, prepare to be owned:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0786941456/qid=1129843712/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/103-9946405-1501468?v=glance&s;=books

Just don’t think this is going to do much in the face of our fully armed and operational Mutants & Masterminds RPG in its slick new edition.

In other news, I’m leaving in the morning for the armpit of Ft. Wayne, IN for the Alliance Open House. I know there are a bunch of people I owe e-mails to, but I’m not going to get to them before I go. Afraid Tuesday is about the earliest anyone is going to hear from me.

I went up to Capitol Hill last night to see the Epoxies, a tremendously fun band from Portland that Nik and I caught last year. I didn’t buy tickets in advance, figuring a Thursday night show with the likes of the Epoxies wouldn’t sell out. Turns out I was totally wrong. They were playing with Against Me, who have gotten a lot more popular than I knew. When I arrived at Neumo’s, I got in a huge line, only to find out this was the Will Call line and the show had already sold out. Doh! So as to not have a completely wasted trip, I walked up Broadway and had dinner a Greek place I hadn’t been to in something like 5 years. It was OK. Over the course of my Capitol Hill wanderings and the 4 busses I rode, I did see and hear some amusing things though. Here’s a sample:

• “If he gets his book published, I’m going to tattoo Fuck Me on my ass.” Overheard on the 106 bus.
• “See scenes from the first week of production on CTHULHU starring Tori Spelling at www.cthulhuthemovie.com then call 206.324.6400. WE WANT LOCAL INVESTORS.” Seen in the Stranger, one of Seattle’s free newpapers. I can think of nothing more sanity blasting than Tori Spelling in a Cthulhu movie.
• “Bitch, let me show how we do things on the other side of town.” Overheard while walking on Broadway.
• “Horses have big cocks. It’s true.” Overheard on the 106 bus.
• “Wouldn’t you just LOVE IT if a beautiful girl in a freaky cleavage-poppin’ Oktoberfest outfit handed you nice icy cold beer RIGHT NOW? Mmm, beer! Would you still drink it if I told you that she made that beer with yeast from her own vagina? That she made a keg homebrew, called “Toi Sennhauser’s OPB—Original Pussy Beer”” Hmm, would you drink it then?” From an article about performance artist Toi’s latest event last weekend in the Stranger.
• “They’re just a band. You can see them next year when they come back.” Overheard on Pike St on the way to Neumo’s. This was my first indication that the show might have sold out.
• “Would Citizen Kane have been any better if you could have walked around Kane’s mansion poking through his cabinets?” From a review of the computer game Indigo Prophecy by former Cthulhu disciple John Tynes.

So, it turns out I should have stayed home and written about WFRP rats. Ah well. Next week the Dropkick Murphys are playing and that I do have tickets for. My rocking out is thus only slightly delayed.

If you’re like me, you love the Minutemen, one of greatest punk bands to come out of California. What you may or may not know is that before the Minutemen, there was the Reactionaries. This band had all three members who later formed the Minutemen (D. Boon, Mike Watt, and George Hurley), plus lead singer Martin Tamburovich. In 1979 they recorded 9 songs in a George Hurley’s shed and Mike Watt has graciously released them for free in mp3 format. You can find them here:

http://www.corndogs.org/

Now this is the true History Lesson, Part 1. Very cool.