Awesome 80's Prom at Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas

When you've been in Vegas a while, either as a resident or a frequent guest, you begin to get the itch for a new show. Is it so much to ask for something fresh? Something different? Sure, there are plenty of nights where it seems like it might be nice to sneak off to watch the flippedy, floopedy exploits of French acrobats, but sure as hell not every night, and it seems like that's all Vegas has to offer these days.

Of Balls and Men

MD Geist is on the TV right now. Its dubbed, but the dubbing crew didn't feel it necessary to subtitle any of the numerous expository texts at the beginning of the movie, so, no idea what's going on. Guts be flyin', and robots be blowin' up... but there's a wicked 80's soundtrack goin' on, and that's all that really matters.

Oh, and the main character just spoke. He sounds like an 18 year old kid doing a Barry White impersonation. Awesome.

This blog has been awfully sleepy lately. Black Friday crushed my soul. Apologies.

But this week, I finally saw something worth blogging about: Robin Williams' stand-up. Vegas was his last stop on his Weapons of Self-Destruction tour. Well, he was scheduled for Vegas like a year ago September, but emergency surgery postponed the act till now.

The good news is that the man is still funny after all these years. Worth noting, however, its a different kind of funny. His delivery is something a bit more like Lewis Black than old Robin Williams. The manic, hectic running about the stage has faded with Williams' coke problem. Now he's more political, but the jokes are a bit dated... its a really strange act in some ways. I never thought I'd hear Robin Williams say 'dude', as in "what the fuck, dude?" But he says it a lot. Dude?

But after a few, he's back on the body humor, comparing scrotums to turkey necks and getting a good laugh from the lowest common denominator.

Aw, hell, its good dirty fun. The man's far past his prime, but the show's still a lot of fun.

In other news, I was reminiscing about Planetnamek.com this evening. That DBZ fansite is long gone, but I do remember fondly how I wasted the hours away, obsessively absorbing the Dragonball universe, laughing at all the arguments about arbitrary power numbers... hell, Planet Namek is how I got my first writing gigs.

Well, little did I know that they've been making new Dragonball lately. Kinda.

In 2008, and never scheduled to release stateside, came a Dragonball reunion show, marking the 10 year anniversary of the show's completion. It takes place between DBZ and DBGT, and is pretty well put together, more on the comedy side than the faux drama of DBZ. Despite being a present for Japan only, the whole thing is on Youtube. Enjoy.

In addition, someone out there in the world heard my ideas for one of my dream projects. I love Dragonball Z, but its so long, and repetitive. The comic book its based on is very fast-paced. But the show, pacing itself to not outrace the comic, is loaded with filler fluff material.

I've often wanted to go back and edit out the filler to make the show worth rewatching, but now i don't have to.

Dragonball Kai is the original show, but sliced down so that the filler is gone. Its also getting the HD treatment, and is being converted to widescreen. Some new animation was made to replace scenes that weren't up to snuff.

The original 291 episode run is being converted down to 100 episodes, which sounds about perfect. No word on whether or not this 'director's cut' will still include Buu, but its a good idea regardless. If I ever buy a DBZ animated collection, it'll be the Kai version. Who's got 145 hours to watch the show? 50? more doable.

Dragonball, now with 66% less standing and screaming. Check out that opening sequence up there!

We gotta powa! Afterall...

Lets Start This Party With a Bang!

The sad news: poparistocrat.com is gone. It wasn't very expensive to run it, but I don't have the funds right now.
The good news: I've started this thing, which is nearly the same thing, in many regards. This simple blog is now the home of my modest writing.

A personal entry to start things off: I've moved to Las Vegas. This move represents a lot of changes in my life, but so far, I have to believe that it is a step in the right direction for me. I've come out here to help one of my oldest and dearest friends retain his sanity as he battles the instituion in law school at UNLV, and also to pursue my own writing career from a vantage point that is closer to the media hub that is California, and find better work in a bustling metropolis.

The hard part, as ever, is the loss of friends and companionship. While I have my good friend and roomie, the lawyer, with me, I've left hundreds of friends back home. Its a shock to the system to exchange so many excellent connections for one, and the larger a city, the more overwhelming it often feels when trying to meet new people. Maybe its true that the human mind cannot handle too many options, and that choice can be as daunting as its unnamed antonym.

Regardless, in the last few weeks, I've managed to gather a writing assignment for the Nevada Film Alliance, putting together a new comedy script for them. I've also just gotten a dayjob working as a middle manager for Godiva Chocolate. Just in time, too, my travel funds are just about gone. And so, my main task remains: wrap my head around the change from modest and conservative Kansas to the most oppulent city in the United States.

A few things are obviously different, the city is more aggressive, the city is more active and less subtle in its plot to seperate you from your money, despite the aggression of the populace its the tourists who really bring the sleaze to the city, the strip is at once beautiful and disgusting. You essentially cannot make a u-turn in this city, there's too much traffic and, again, aggression. There are surprisingly few local eateries, the city is immensely crowded with food and shops, but most of them belong to chains, probably to add a sense of familiarity for travelers. Still, if you want food thats a local invention, you're going to want to go for chinese, or maybe mexican, neither have been very good so far.

One major disappointment has also been the real lack of nerds and nerdy stuff in the area. There is only one real board-game shop in town, and its fair selection can't begin to compete with that of Hometown Games in Lawrence. Most of the comic stores aren't worth writing about with the exception of Comic Oasis, which is the best I've found so far, and has been nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Comic Shop this year. There is a film-watcher group here, but their schedule is too far behind my viewing schedule. I'll have to slow down a lot to join them.

Generally, the town has been pretty good to me, and there's lots of entertainment about. But the charms of home, or even of my one-time stomping grounds Seattle, are missing. There aren't many places to meet worthwhile people, and there aren't many home-grown shops that display local pride. Instead, there's a series of McDonalds and fat poor people running excitedly through their doors to grab burgers and lose all of their savings on slot machines. Its an odd town, built around bilking tourists, and then being bilked yourself, while pumping out new generations that will do the same. And in the midst of it is, well, me.

I did give a homeless lady some cookies today. That made me feel good... no matter what, that option is still there; people always have the ability to do constructive things, even in the sleaziest of environments. We can defy the call of the nihilistic roulette wheel, and follow a path that makes us feel...enlightened.

Its a city of contradictions; gas stations that don't sell gas, and topless pools that are endorsed by the city but ONLY if no one there is celebrating anything. That's right, let those girls hang, but SO HELP ME if I find anyone having fun...
A city of contradictions, but for now, its home.