Busy weekend
Jun. 27th, 2005 03:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mikeknand it's not done yet...
Went out to dinner with Kim and Derek on Wednesday - we were trying to make an early showing of Howl's Moving Castle so we ended up at Qdoba. After dinner we met![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kandy_elizabet, joef_johnm and Paul over at the theater. No clue how it compares to the book, but the film was wonderful! Filled with all sorts of Miyazaki touches - definitely need to get it when it comes out (subtitled if I'm lucky - not that any of the voices were bad - I just prefer that).
Thursday afternoon I decided to see if I could scrounge up some extra Serenity tickets. I didn't really expect to have any luck, since the movie was later that same day. By 5 o'clock I had found three people with eight extra tickets, so we were able to add a few more people to our group (but still not enough tickets to cover everyone on my list). By the time we left for the theater around 6:30, we had lost one person, so we had an extra ticket of our own. Got to the theater, scrambled a bit to meet up with the folks who had the tickets. While we were there,woodwindy found people with three more extra tickets, and so along with my one extra she was able to get two more couples to see the screening (fortunately they all lived fairly close to the theater).
I happy to report that the movie holds up well to repeat viewing. Even with knowing exactly what was going to happen, it held my attention better then Batman Begins. Mostly, Amy and I are just glad we now have people we can talk about the film with. :) (River is still made out of chocolate).
Friday I was too tired to go to dance practice. Instead I drove up to the home brew store and picked up ingredients for three beers: Oatmeal Stout, Irish Red Ale, and Hefeweizen. The first two are for the war party, and the last one for me :) While I was there, I also got a kegging system (finally using the gift certificate I got at the brewing competition), so now I can keg stuff if I want (yay!).
Saturday was our Norristown Library demo. We had a good turn out from both Scadians and the public (estimates ranged from 100 - 150 parents and kids). I was lucky (or did I plan it that way ;) ) and got to stay in the A/C with the gaming tables. Things seemed to go in waves, we'd have a few kids, then a ton, then none at all, then a bunch again. Taught all the basic games, only played one myself (Fitchneal withbaavgai, during a slow time at the end).
Later that evening,violet_amy, kathy_the_geek and I all went out to see Nellie McKay in concert. Great little theater, made for a very intimate (sometimes too intimate) setting. The opening act was a young (I believe I heard that she was 17) guitar player. Good music and good voice, but her songs didn't really do anything for me. Nellie, on the other hand, scored great on all three counts. She strikes me as someone who is very angry and frustrated at how she sees the world (or more accurately, the country) progressing. She's also fairly modest about her own abilities, down playing compliments shouted out from the audience several times. My only problem with the show was the audience - several people were yelling out stuff, either songs request (all of which Nellie played immediately) or comments. Very annoying. Anyway, can't wait for her second album, and I hope I get a chance to see her again in a setting like that before she becomes too well know (and only able to play bigger venues).
Sunday was scheduled as a day of rest (sort of). We had our annual Commons in the park with Bhakail. It had a slow start, but built up to a good sized group later in the afternoon.eviluncleoli fired up the grill and cooked up all sorts of meaty goodness. The heat kept anyone from fighting, but the three fencers who showed up (beckishadow, math5 and someone from CT) did do a little fencing. We also had a few new folks stop by for a while, so that was cool.
After the Commons,violet_amy decided we were going to go out to see Batman Begins with beckishadow and singewulf. My thoughts: Good action flick. Best Batman movie so far, but still not a great Batman movie. They always seem to take the characters from the comic, keep their names and some of their props but throw everything else away. So long as I don't try to compare the film to the comic, it's fine. When I compare it to the source material, it just drops the ball too often. (Yeah, I've read too many Batman comics to ever really enjoy an "action Batman" movie. I want to see one where he's back to being the World's Greatest Detective dammit).
Tonight is the last library demo that I'm "coordinating" - the demos don't feel very coordinated, but so long as the library is happy and no one gets pissed off or upset at me, then I feel I've done the job.
Went out to dinner with Kim and Derek on Wednesday - we were trying to make an early showing of Howl's Moving Castle so we ended up at Qdoba. After dinner we met
kandy_elizabet, joef_johnm and Paul over at the theater. No clue how it compares to the book, but the film was wonderful! Filled with all sorts of Miyazaki touches - definitely need to get it when it comes out (subtitled if I'm lucky - not that any of the voices were bad - I just prefer that).Thursday afternoon I decided to see if I could scrounge up some extra Serenity tickets. I didn't really expect to have any luck, since the movie was later that same day. By 5 o'clock I had found three people with eight extra tickets, so we were able to add a few more people to our group (but still not enough tickets to cover everyone on my list). By the time we left for the theater around 6:30, we had lost one person, so we had an extra ticket of our own. Got to the theater, scrambled a bit to meet up with the folks who had the tickets. While we were there,
woodwindy found people with three more extra tickets, and so along with my one extra she was able to get two more couples to see the screening (fortunately they all lived fairly close to the theater).I happy to report that the movie holds up well to repeat viewing. Even with knowing exactly what was going to happen, it held my attention better then Batman Begins. Mostly, Amy and I are just glad we now have people we can talk about the film with. :) (River is still made out of chocolate).
Friday I was too tired to go to dance practice. Instead I drove up to the home brew store and picked up ingredients for three beers: Oatmeal Stout, Irish Red Ale, and Hefeweizen. The first two are for the war party, and the last one for me :) While I was there, I also got a kegging system (finally using the gift certificate I got at the brewing competition), so now I can keg stuff if I want (yay!).
Saturday was our Norristown Library demo. We had a good turn out from both Scadians and the public (estimates ranged from 100 - 150 parents and kids). I was lucky (or did I plan it that way ;) ) and got to stay in the A/C with the gaming tables. Things seemed to go in waves, we'd have a few kids, then a ton, then none at all, then a bunch again. Taught all the basic games, only played one myself (Fitchneal with
baavgai, during a slow time at the end).Later that evening,
violet_amy, kathy_the_geek and I all went out to see Nellie McKay in concert. Great little theater, made for a very intimate (sometimes too intimate) setting. The opening act was a young (I believe I heard that she was 17) guitar player. Good music and good voice, but her songs didn't really do anything for me. Nellie, on the other hand, scored great on all three counts. She strikes me as someone who is very angry and frustrated at how she sees the world (or more accurately, the country) progressing. She's also fairly modest about her own abilities, down playing compliments shouted out from the audience several times. My only problem with the show was the audience - several people were yelling out stuff, either songs request (all of which Nellie played immediately) or comments. Very annoying. Anyway, can't wait for her second album, and I hope I get a chance to see her again in a setting like that before she becomes too well know (and only able to play bigger venues).Sunday was scheduled as a day of rest (sort of). We had our annual Commons in the park with Bhakail. It had a slow start, but built up to a good sized group later in the afternoon.
eviluncleoli fired up the grill and cooked up all sorts of meaty goodness. The heat kept anyone from fighting, but the three fencers who showed up (beckishadow, math5 and someone from CT) did do a little fencing. We also had a few new folks stop by for a while, so that was cool.After the Commons,
violet_amy decided we were going to go out to see Batman Begins with beckishadow and singewulf. My thoughts: Good action flick. Best Batman movie so far, but still not a great Batman movie. They always seem to take the characters from the comic, keep their names and some of their props but throw everything else away. So long as I don't try to compare the film to the comic, it's fine. When I compare it to the source material, it just drops the ball too often. (Yeah, I've read too many Batman comics to ever really enjoy an "action Batman" movie. I want to see one where he's back to being the World's Greatest Detective dammit).Tonight is the last library demo that I'm "coordinating" - the demos don't feel very coordinated, but so long as the library is happy and no one gets pissed off or upset at me, then I feel I've done the job.
