I say unto Pharoah, "Let my people go..."

[uberreiniger]

...So we all set out for the Promised Land. Ready Set Go! (That's a joke that only dungeonwriter will get.)

This has, been, by uberreinigerien standards, a very wild weekend. I've actually been meaning to blog about it for a while now but just haven't had a moment's rest to do so.

Friday night I met some of Mel's friends for the first time (and have a slew of new LJ friends now as a result,) and celebrated a Pagan holy day by eating some of the best lamb I have ever tasted. After that we went out and this erotica writer got to see his first real live burlesque show. Apparently there's an art district in Kansas City which everyone knew about but me and once a month they have a sort of festival with live entertainment and open art exhibits. Anyway, so yeah, burlesque. And also tribal bellydancers, spoken word poetry, and an emcee who belted out the best version of "You Be Good to Mama" I've heard apart from Queen Latifah herself. I'll be honest, a lot of the dance acts were just sort of okay, but a few of them were really memorable and outstanding. Sadly Mel and I had to miss about half the show since we had about two hundred people crammed into a space that couldn't have been much bigger than our apartment. We had to spend a long time walking around outside or else risk fainting from the heat.

Saturday we continued our Gary Gygax Fairwell Dungeons & Dragons experience at kakita_shisumo and duendegrrl's house. It was another epic gaming experience complete with pizza, coke, and the infamous Bag of Devouring, a cursed magic item which all D&D players live in fear of, but that in all my years I have never actually seen in play until now. My character is currently trying to raise money to replace Mel's character's severed hand. The game session was also notable for the many puns on the names of Egyptian gods.

Between it all I've been very busy in World of Warcraft. I have started no less than five new Draenei characters this week and am leveling them all simultaneously. My Horde main isn't even to 70 yet so I don't know what I'm thinking. But I'm having fun and the beautiful cloven-hooved aliens are just so pretty to look at. They're like a kinder, gentler Satanic Winter Goat and the males sound like Sayid from Lost!

Today hasn't seen any social activity, although pinkfaeriestarsand family will be over shortly. Instead I've spent it grocery shopping and washing dishes. If there was a lesson to be learned this weekend it's that being social makes dishes really, really pile up.

On a sadder note, this weekend marks the passing of Charlton Heston; one of the last cinematic giants of his generation. A big, decadent epic film is nothing without an actor who can carry it and Heston's broad shoulders did it time and time again. I admired him as an actor and films like The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur  are still amazing works of art even to this day. But they would have been nothing without the man who starred in them. Farewell to yet another legend. 

Comments

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a heck of weekend with lots of swords and sorcery and naked women. Who could ask for more?

I can't remember what I saw Charlton Heston in, except I believe Julius Ceasar. I don't see enough films. But he will be missed.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a heck of weekend with lots of swords and sorcery and naked women. Who could ask for more?

Well I suppose you could always ask for MORE swords, sorcery, and naked women, but I suppose there comes a point where moderation must be enforced.

[kakita-shisumo.livejournal.com]

I gotta tell you, the puns weren't really Sutekh to the game. It's all well and good to brag about how you have these puns at Sobek and call, but keeping going to the point disrupting the game isn't funny...

...it's Nile-ism.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

But everyone thought it was so funny I thought we were going to have to Khartoum off in straight jackets. But if you'd Hathor I not do it again I understand.

[kakita-shisumo.livejournal.com]

Perhaps this little figure of speech will make my position clear:

ushabti fuck up, 'kay?

[fadedsecret.livejournal.com]

Ooooh burlesque! I have never seen anything like that in my life.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I never had either and it really elevated my views of the subject. I always thought burlesque was basically just glorified stripping, but I see now there's more to it than that. It's definitely it's own category of performance art. Then there was the lady who organized the performance. She wasn't doing burlesque, but some kind of strange modern dance/bellydance hybrid where she'd jerk and twitch every few motions like a Silent Hill nurse. Three days later I still can't decide if I liked it or not.

[fadedsecret.livejournal.com]

Nothing wrong with glorified stripping. :P

I miss you. We never talk anymore.>_

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I've forced myself to gloss over your posts because I didn't want SH:0 spoilers. I just bid on a copy on ebay so hopefully I will be able to join the conversation soon.

[fadedsecret.livejournal.com]

*SNIFFLES*

I POSTED IT MAINLY FOR YOUUUUUU.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Aww... I'm sorry. Once I play it I promise we will talk about it.

In my spare moments lately I've actually been making roleplay stats for the SH monsters using the D&D rules. I don't plan to use them, it's mostly just a mental exercise. It's actually proving more challenging than I thought because D&D is designed so that most monsters have a special attack or two that makes them dangerous. In Silent Hill, other than looking scary most of the monsters don't really do anything except run into you. Take the dogs from the first game. "It's horrible! It has no skin! It shouldn't be alive! It's the most horrible, disgusting thing you've ever seen! It... it... it bites you on the leg just like a regular dog would..."

[fadedsecret.livejournal.com]

*giggles* Or that thing that...flies around and divebombs you. It's....a bird really.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Fortunately nearly all of the monsters in SH2 and SH3 do something interesting. 1, not so much, and 4... eh... a lot of people complain about the jaguar-growling dogs and the belching nurses. I don't. They're fine. However, a gorilla with a golf club is just silly.

The SH4 ghosts are a serious problem, since in D&D there is no such thing as an unkillable monster. I'm thinking about ruling that they die if you manage to kill the head ghost who is performing the Sacraments (e.g. Walter.)

[fadedsecret.livejournal.com]

LOL however silly the monsters are in SH4, it doesn't stop them from scaring the ever living shit out of me each time I play. Whenever I play SH, there are always screams of terror.

And I dont care what anyone says about SH4. I'll still love it, cause it was my first.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. It's much easier to laugh at a gorilla with a golf club when it's NOT lunging at you!

What SH (non-boss) monster do you find the most scary? For me it's the mumblers (SH1) and the mannequins (SH2).

[fadedsecret.livejournal.com]

All of them are scary in a way..given the fact that they lunge out of darkness at you...or in SH 4 (with no radio) you never know where they might be.

The scariest...hmm...I dunno! The HUGE monsters don't scare me really (the closers and like, the Abstract daddy) but the nurses, mannequins and straight jackets are scary.

The SCARIEST for me though, would be in first person in Henry's apartment, with the hauntings...because first person SUCKS its WAY scarier.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

See, Abstract Daddy scares the HELL out of me, moreso now that I know what it is. Very few of the SH3 monsters are scary in the same way that other monsters are, but I hate most of the monsters in that game the most on account of how hard they are to fight. Closers hit for massive damage and are very hard to kill without guns. Slurpers and Pendulums have charge attacks that there's practically no way to avoid.

Oh man those hauntings in 4 are just evil! The only time I got the haunting with the ghost crawling out of the wall was right at the end and I thought it was some kind of boss fight. I ran the hell out of that apartment!

[fadedsecret.livejournal.com]

I remember first playing that game...and the first part is looking around your apartment...we were SO freaked out there was something/someone in there, we were like...edging around corners and shit.

And then one of the first hauntings was the little boy in the closet, and you wake up in your bed, suddenly there's that fucking loud annoying noise letting you know SOMETHING is eating your fucking SOUL and you turn to get out of bed and HI LITTLE BOY IN THE CLOSET NO THNX PLZ.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

My first haunting was something boring. Cracks in the walls or something. Obviously, my favorite/scariest is Walter in the television screaming I'M ALWAYS WATCHING YOU!

[fadedsecret.livejournal.com]

Walter in the television...I don't remember that.

I DO remember Walter's face in the picture in your room...while the telephone says, " I'm ALWAYS watching you!"

And the fucking heads floating past the fucking window...we were RIGHT about to look out the fucking window, so we were REAL close, and it just floats by...fucking head!

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I was mixed up. You're right. There is a seperate haunting in the television.

Thoughts

[yogamary.livejournal.com]

Burlesque is definitely more than glorified stripping! In fact, the "stripping" portion of it is the least important! The neo-burlesque movement is about bringing back one of the earliest forms of performance art: vaudeville and more specifically, cabaret. The cabaret movement (which emcompasses burlesque as well as many other forms of performance art) is primarily satirical and often political. It pokes fun at society and at people in general. Burlesque itself is about the tease--that moment where we give you a bit...but not everything. Many dances are funny and laugh at life. But more than that, burlesque is an empowering, woman-friendly movement. It embraces the beauty of the female form and celebrates the fact that the human body--every human body--is unique and different and beautiful.

What's sad is that so many people think that burlesque is just a different form of stripping and we're often equated morally and ethically with the 6" spiked-heel gals you might find down the road. That kind of attitude saddens me, but is prevalent in the midwest, especially. The burlesque performers in Kansas City are working very hard to make burlesque more mainstream and less misunderstood. Thank you for coming to our show last weekend and thank you for this post!

Sincerely,
Mary Magdalene (The Dancin' Queen!)

Re: Thoughts

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I definitely had my eyes opened in a most pleasing way! Thanks for all the hard work you and the other ladies put into it.

(adding you, btw. I always need more people with whom I can discuss eroticism and Biblical scholarship in equal measure.)

Re: Thoughts

[yogamary.livejournal.com]

Consider yourself added. But next time you come to a show, you are officially obligated to introduce yourself.

Re: Thoughts

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I think we can arrange that :) Break a leg tonight. I haven't been down to JOB in such a long time, but it's a great space to perform in.

[donkeyjon.livejournal.com]

One god, sun god, Ra, Ra, Ra!

[dungeonwriter.livejournal.com]

Oy!

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

It was more fun than Jewish Easter :)