I had been meaning to write this post for a week or so now, but kept putting it off. I suppose it’s time I put it down, especially as I’ve already said something similar in a Live Nation survey.

Back on March 26th, Jennifer and I went to go see Stephen Lynch at the House of Blues here in Houston. While we had been to the House of Blues once in the past, this was our first time going there for an actual concert event. Jennifer has been a fan of Stephen Lynch for as long as I have known her; to give you an idea of what his music is like, here’s his song “D&D”.

All of his music is in pretty much the same vein: comedic pieces done in an acoustic style.

All in all, Lynch’s performance was excellent. He was hysterically funny, and his musical impressions of people like Scott Stapp of Creed were spot on. About the only song we didn’t like was one did by one of his backing musicians, and that was because it went over the line into some serious squick territory. We thought he did a perfect job, and if it stood on its own, it would have been an excellent night.

However, the actions (or inaction) of the House of Blues staff made it a very unpleasant night for us. In fact, we have decided not to go to any more events at the House of Blues because of this one night.

To give a bit of perspective, we were in the balcony over the stage, which was the only place where one could get seating. The main show floor was standing room only, and as the two of us are starting to push 40 and are a bit out of shape, we’re not up for spending an entire evening standing up. We could see the stage, but there were two screens at our level on either side of the stage which also gave a closer view of what was happening on the stage. However, the camera pointing at the stage was not adjusted at all during the performance, so for the first fifteen to twenty minutes we couldn’t see Lynch at all, as he was on a keyboard on the far left of the stage just out of the camera’s view. Several people were shouting that the camera was aimed badly, yet nothing was done. In addition, when the middle screen was needed for the song “Juggalo”, it didn’t come down right away, and the projection didn’t start working until nearly a minute into the song.

Security wasn’t present during the performance, either. There was a group behind us and to the left, in a VIP section, that was loud, obnoxious, and falling-down drunk. I don’t suppose that would be a problem in a concert with electric instruments, but as previously stated Lynch’s backing instruments are mostly acoustic with the exception of a keyboard. At this concert, they were so disruptive that they were visibly and audibly angering people around them, to the point where people were telling them to be quiet. They were so bad that they should have been thrown out. Instead, when I DID see them escorted out, it was after the show and they were being escorted to a meet-and-greet with Lynch. We also saw someone smoking weed during the performance. “Big deal,” you might think. “People smoke weed at concerts all the time.” House of Blues is a far smaller venue than many others in the Houston area, and this person was very obvious. He was sitting in the front row of the balcony and blowing his smoke over the stage. In fact, Jennifer and I were on the other side of the balcony and could see who it was, and his smoke was rather distracting as it billowed over the stage. Again, security did nothing. (For the record, smoking in bars and other venues like House of Blues is illegal per city ordinance.)

In fact, I think there was only one time when we saw security do anything. When the concert was over, Lynch said he would be signing some merchandise in the merchandise sales area. Jennifer and I went downstairs, and stood near the merchandise area. Jennifer wanted to get a closer look at Lynch, so we stood out of the way, not in line, but in plain view where nobody was working. Security started walking around and shouted that if we weren’t buying merchandise, we needed to get out now. I considered asking the guy if we could wait, but the tone of their voices and their declarations that “if you’re waiting for someone in the bathroom they can find you outside” made it clear they weren’t interested in exceptions. Jennifer and I walked out, and we decided that we would never go back.

It’s a shame, really. Jennifer and I really wanted to like the performance, especially as Stephen Lynch is one of her favorite musicians. However, it’s not a good sign when I turn to my wife and notice that she has a stern expression on her face and her arms are crossed, evidence that she is VERY pissed off. When the venue is overserving people who are drunk, not dealing with disruptive audience members, does nothing about those using illegal drugs blatantly, and overall makes the experience an unpleasant one, it makes us not want to go back. As it stands, unless something drastically changes, we have no desire to go back to the House of Blues in Houston.

Recently I’ve gotten into Table Titans, which is an official webcomic for Dungeons & Dragons. The story so far basically revolves around a single group and their current campaign. It’s a fun comic, and the story makes me pine for the days where I would play tabletop RPGs with my friends. I’d submit a story for the site (they’ve asked for funny stories of campaigns or game times), but the problem comes from the fact that almost all of my tabletop RPG experience is from playing World of Darkness games as opposed to Dungeons & Dragons.

These days, though, I’ve pretty much actively given up on playing actual tabletop RPGs and have settled for fantasy board games instead. The reason for that is because with the board games, the game gets wrapped up in a single session. I only have two friends who I do tabletop gaming with, and we only get to meet once every month or so. One friend lives on the other side of the city from me and the other friend, and the other friend has a very busy post-work schedule. We’ve played Dungeons & Dragons twice, and each time we played a different campaign. Neither was followed up on, so it felt like a TV series with an overarching plot line that is cancelled an episode or two in. At least with the fantasy board games we get some semblance of closure, if only through actual victory or defeat. :-)

This past weekend, we had a game night at my house… or should I say, a “game weekend” as one friend (George) stayed Friday and Saturday night. On Friday night, we decided to finally break out my copy of Space Hulk and give it a whirl. For those not familiar, it’s a two-player game based on Warhammer 40,000, where one player controls a contingent of Space Marines, and the other controls a group of aliens known as “Genestealers”. The game itself borrows very heavily from the setting and theme of the movie Aliens. When looking over the rules and the pieces, we realized the miniatures needed gluing together, and I didn’t have any model glue or paint. We then opted to play later, once the miniatures have been assembled; Jennifer wants to paint the Genestealers in Hello Kitty colors, so once I get her some paints she’ll have some fun. :-)

On Saturday, we went ahead and picked up Arkham Horror from Montag’s Games, a gaming store local to my house. Arkham Horror is a board game based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, where the players are characters in the fictional city of Arkham, Massachusetts in the 1920’s, investigating otherworldly activity and aiming to prevent an utterly alien and godlike Ancient One from manifesting on Earth. The players work with each other to beat the game; either everyone wins, or everyone loses. George and I played for a while until Chris arrived; once Chris arrived, we decided to move on to our favorite game: Talisman.

Playing Talisman this time was something of a challenge. For my birthday, Jennifer had gotten me two expansions for the game: The Reaper, and The Dragon. Now, when we first played Talisman (second edition) back in our high school years, Games Workshop had made several expansions for the game, but other than adding extra boards and extra cards, they tended not to change the game too much. The expansions made by Fantasy Flight Games for this version (revised fourth edition) changed things up quite a bit. In The Reaper, for example, Death was a non-player character who stalked the players and could do anything from permanently killing them to giving them boons. The Dragon took things one step further, and had the characters deal with three dragon lords fighting amongst themselves to become the Dragon King, all while said dragon lords’ servants (human and dragon alike) make their presence known throughout the land. Even the endgame is changed, where the winning player is the one who slays the Dragon King as opposed to the one who uses the Crown of Command to kill his enemies. We had a blast with the new rules, making the game even more fun. I may end up looking to get other expansions later, like The Frostmarch.

All in all, it was a good weekend. I’m thinking that Arkham Horror may be one of the featured games at the next game night, as it’s something new that Chris hasn’t played before, plus it’s a good “everybody work together” game. I’m also pondering getting a copy of DungeonQuest, provided I (or my parents) don’t find my long lost copy from my high school days. That would provide a challenge; it’s a dungeon-crawl game, with a time limit and the players all fending for themselves. My original copy’s instruction manual says players have a 15% survival rate. ;-) In any event, I’m looking forward to the next game night. It’s just too bad it’ll be in a month or so…

Jennifer had a thing she was going to tonight, so we decided that we would meet for dinner right after work. After a bit of discussion, we decided on a place that had recently opened near her office called Bone Daddy’s House of Smoke. She had been there for lunch this past Friday, and not only did she love the food there, she knew I would enjoy it as well. Considering how well she knows me, I was looking forward to it.

The best way I can describe Bone Daddy’s is that it’s a barbecue joint that employs scantily-clad beautiful waitresses, a la Hooter’s or Twin Peaks. Jennifer hadn’t told me about the latter part, so I admit I was surprised when we walked in. The nice thing is that the outfits, while definitely meant to be sexy, are tasteful and not crass. Customer service was terrific, too, with our waitress not only giving numerous suggestions as far as food selections, she delivered hot towels to our table after our meal to clean our hands with. The hot towel thing was a new one for me, and I have to say it was very welcome considering how messy barbecue can get.

As for the food itself, well… wow. We started off with their “Hoot N’ Hooty’s Cheese Dip”, which is some of the best queso I’ve had in a while. The queso was filled with bacon and peppers, which gave it a kick… and the seasoned tortilla chips complemented it well. Jennifer had their brisket slider basket for her dinner, while I had the “Flying Pig” (pulled pork, link sausage, glazed ham, and bacon on a burger bun). The meat was especially juicy and tasty, and we were given a side bottle of barbecue sauce that was delicious. Her meal came with some damn good cole slaw (I’m not usually a fan of cole slaw, but this was good), and mine came with the best baked beans I’ve gotten from a barbecue joint in a LONG time. While the waitress recommended their banana pudding for dessert, we went with their brownie sundae instead. Dear God, the brownie was moist and rich, and the vanilla ice cream was great too. Of course, I had to have a beer with my meal, and they did not disappoint with their choices; not only did they have the standards on draft, they even had St. Arnold’s (a local brewery) selections available as well.

Jennifer actually just said it best: “This place covers the four Bs of men: beer, boobs, barbecue, and basketball.” The latter one was a reference to the fact that the place is covered with widescreen TVs, all set to sports channels. All in all, we had a great dining experience and I would love to go back. The only thing preventing me from doing so on a regular basis is the fact that I’m rarely at Jennifer’s office, as it’s the same distance from our house as my office, but in the exact opposite direction. I’m hoping the parent company decides to open more locations in the Houston area, as I would love to go to a Pearland-based location. Still, we’ll definitely be back, as this was most certainly worth having again.

It’s not a secret at all that I’m a huge Batman fan. What’s a little less obvious is that I’m a huge Superman fan as well.

I’ve always enjoyed watching Superman TV shows and films (animated or live-action), and while I don’t have as many Superman comics or novels at home as I do Batman ones, it’s rare that I come across a Superman story I don’t like. I suppose the reason is that while Batman is the epitome of human training both physical and mental, Superman is more defined by the example he sets for others. He’s capable of incredible feats, but at his core, he’s a man who wants to do right by everyone.

Earlier today I was having a Twitter conversation with John Vogel (story/animation guru for NetherRealm Studios, developers of Mortal Kombat and Injustice: Gods Among Us), Tom Taylor (writer for the Injustice: Gods Among Us prequel comic), and Patrick McCarron (webmaster for MK fansite TRMK), where I made a snarky comment about a fantasy about Superman starting his day actually originated with Hitman. I then suddenly remembered one of my favorite Superman moments, and it in fact involved Hitman.

“Hitman” (who almost always went by his real name, Tommy Monaghan) had his own comic in the 1990’s; he was a contract killer living in Gotham City who decided to specialize in killing criminals (especially metahumans) after surviving an alien attack. In issue #34, Tommy was sitting on a rooftop when he gets the shock of his life: Superman is there, too. The two talk, and Superman explains that he’s feeling down because he failed to save one astronaut’s life while rescuing his comrades. Superman is having a moment where he doesn’t feel he can live up to everyone’s expectations. In response, Tommy gives his explanation of what he finds best about Superman… and it gets me because it’s so true, yet so seldom discussed.

Tommy: You can’t help what people are gonna believe about you…

Superman: No, but I have to live with it.

Tommy: An’ you’re really gonna beat yourself up about that? You’re gonna chase this ideal you know is garbage? This thing you can never live up to? Jeez. You’re everything that’s great about this country an’ you don’t even know it.

Superman: Come again…?

Tommy: Hey, let me tell you the problem with America, okay?

This could be the greatest country on Earth. It really could. You got all these different people comin’ here to get away from oppression an’ poverty, all lookin’ for a better life. But what do they do? They hang on to all of the things that got ’em in trouble in the first place. They wanna go on fightin’ the same wars an’ hatin’ the same people they did in the old world. They all wanna be Italian or Greek, or Irish or Polish or Russian, or African or Vietnamese or Cambodian or whatever… so they hang onto alla that. They stick to their own kind, an’ everyone stays suspicious of everyone else an’ for what? Culture? History? What the hell is that, a bunch of stuff your folks said you hadda believe in all your life? Does that make it real?

But you, man, you showed ’em how it’s done. You’re the classic immigrant guy who comes to the States an’ joins the melting pot. It’s like you’re sayin’ — okay, I’m from planet Krypton or wherever, but that’s all in the past. I’m startin’ over.

I’m American. What can I do to help?

This issue of Hitman ended winning its author, Garth Ennis, an Eisner Award. It’s well-deserved, in my opinion, because this is the first time I can think of where someone directly referenced the fact that Superman is the epitome of the American Dream: someone whose roots are from somewhere else, coming to America to make a new life for himself, and working to better himself and his fellow man.

What makes Superman interesting to me isn’t so much what damage he can do or how well he fights, but how he serves as an optimistic example and that his stories invite discussion about what makes him tick and what effect he has on others. It’s been a while since I read this story, but it resonates with me like it did when I first read it; just like all of the good Superman stories, it makes me feel better about us as a people.

I think it’s pretty obvious to anyone who knows me that I enjoy playing fighting games, especially ones from the Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter series of games.

The problem, however, is that I have an Xbox 360. As much as I enjoy my 360, the standard gamepad has one glaring flaw: the d-pad is nowhere near precise enough for fighting games. I remember when Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 came out for Xbox Live Arcade, and I was struggling to get moves off using the d-pad on my wireless gamepad. It finally got to the point where I ended up buying a HORI EX2 gamepad once Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was released, simply because I had read that it had one of the best d-pads of any Xbox 360 gamepad and I wanted something that didn’t frustrate me when trying to play. What I read turned out to be accurate: the d-pad was indeed flawless, though over time the controller did develop an issue of the left analog stick not recognizing when it was “centered”.

However, that still left me with the standard wireless gamepad if I wanted to have someone locally play against me as player 2. I rarely if ever have friends over who are fighting game fans, but I wanted to get a second controller just in case it ever happened. Being as I’m not a tournament level player, I couldn’t justify the cost of a $100-150 arcade joystick just for a few games. While the HORI EX2 pad was inexpensive, I wanted something a little cheaper, as this would only be used for fighting games. I ended up stumbling across the answer in the form of PDP’s Versus Controller for Xbox 360.

What made me interested in the Versus was the direction controller setup. Most dedicated fighting game controllers use either a decent d-pad or an arcade-quality analog joystick for the direction controller. The Versus controller goes for an interesting blend of both approaches, in that it uses a thumb joystick. It’s the same size as a d-pad, but the internal workings are those of an arcade joystick. In essence, it’s a joystick that is controlled by your thumb. It feels weird to use, at first, but it didn’t take me long to get used to it. In fact, after a bit, I was finding it to be more efficient to use than the HORI EX2’s gamepad when playing Street Fighter games. Mortal Kombat games are taking a little longer to get used to, but I’m finding that some moves I had no problem with on the arcade versions (Shang Tsung’s soul steal fatality on Mortal Kombat II, for example) but had issues with on a d-pad are easier on the Versus.

What took longer to get used to was the button configuration. While the Versus has the same face button layout at the HORI EX2, the buttons on the Versus are far larger. This had led to a number of times where I’ve found myself pressing the wrong button, as my thumb was hitting where I was used to it being on a regular gamepad. In addition, the LT and RT buttons are not triggers, but bumper buttons like the LB and RB buttons on a standard gamepad. This also takes a little getting used to, especially as the Block button on Mortal Kombat games is mapped to the RT button. The Back and Start buttons are on the very top of the controller, and are small to boot. I’ve fumbled looking for them on more than one occasion. Still, despite the issues I had getting used to the different layout, the buttons themselves were responsive and I had no problems once I adapted to them.

At the time I’m writing this, PDP has only three of the Xbox 360 Versus controllers left on their site, selling for $15. As they’re clearance items now, once they’re sold they’re gone. Fortunately, Amazon has them as well, but for $10 more. I would try getting one from PDP first, before going the Amazon route. Still, if you want a decent dedicated fighting game controller but can’t justify the cost of an arcade joystick, you can’t go wrong with a PDP Versus.

It’s fair to say that music is an important part of my life. I may not have played an instrument in several years (though I still have them in a closet), but I listen to music all the time at work, and as much as I want to listen to NPR on the drive to/from work I’d rather have music playing off my iPhone. My music tastes tend to be pretty eclectic, which can annoy Jennifer oftentimes simply because of how jarring the genre changes can be, plus how a bunch of my music is instrumental.

To give you an idea of how eclectic my music tastes are, this is my iPod’s work playlist. (Anything that’s just a title is a soundtrack.)

Notably, there are a few musicals and operas in the playlist. I appreciate musical theater, but I never really got much of a chance to go before I started dating Jennifer. She’s a theater geek and loves musicals, and so we’ve been to a few shows since we started dating. The big problem we’ve had, though, is that musicals at the main venues in the theater district tend to be bloody expensive, so we don’t get to go as often as we’d like.

While listening to The Front Row on the local NPR station, Jennifer heard about a new musical theater group called Bayou City Theatrics. A small group, they were putting on a performance of Into the Woods, which is one of Jennifer’s favorite shows. We decided to check it out on a lark, and bought tickets for the performance last Saturday. The tickets were inexpensive and general admission. The show itself was at the Midtown Art Center, and was a small and intimate venue.

How was the show itself? It was REALLY well done, and the cast did a superb job. Jennifer had never been to an actual performance of of Into the Woods before, and she thoroughly enjoyed this one. She only had a couple of quibbles, and that had more to do with a couple of the characters being portrayed differently than in the cast recordings she was familiar with. Otherwise, we had a lot of fun and want to go back.

Fortunately, their season has only just begun, and they have a few shows upcoming we want to see, like Little Shop of Horrors and Avenue Q. The latter one is the one I’m really interested in seeing them do, from a technical standpoint. As Avenue Q (being a mature parody of Sesame Street), it should be fun to see how they get all the puppets going and everything. I’m sure they’ll do a good job, as they did a good job with Into the Woods, but I’m looking forward to seeing how they pull it off.

In any event, Bayou City Theatrics has definitely given me and Jennifer something new and fun to go see. Here’s hoping they continue to meet the expectations the first show we saw set for them. :-)

So, Jennifer and I did something fun this past weekend.

On Friday, the Alamo Drafthouse at Mason Park tweeted a link to a story on the Houston Press, talking about how they would be doing a free showing of the Doctor Who serial “The Tomb of the Cybermen”. For those not aware of the format of the original series, it was a serial, with stories taking up multiple 25-minute episodes. Most Doctor Who serials were four episodes long; “The Tomb of the Cybermen” was no exception. “The Tomb of the Cybermen” features the Second Doctor (played by Patrick Troughton) as he and his companions happen upon an archaeological expedition to the adopted Cyberman homeworld of Telos. While I have the serial on DVD, I wanted to see it on the big screen, and this also gave us an opportunity to go to the Alamo Drafthouse for the first time. Jennifer was willing to go along, even though she doesn’t care for the original series.

When we got there, we found a company called 8th Dimension had set up a table selling Doctor Who-related merchandise. Jennifer and I looked over what they had, and we ended up buying me two items. The first was a full-size sonic screwdriver. While they had the Tenth Doctor’s and Eleventh Doctor’s models available, I just had to pick up the Fourth Doctor’s model once I saw it existed. We also got a miniature LED flashlight shaped like the Eleventh Doctor’s sonic screwdriver. That one is going into my laptop bag, as there’s been more than one time I’ve needed a flashlight at work. :-) Once we got our purchases settled, we went into the theater, picked our seats, and ordered our dinner: red pepper hummus as an appetizer, followed by a BBQ chicken pizza for me and a chicken caesar wrap for Jennifer. It was delicious, all told.

Right before the serial started, the gentleman from the Houston Press who was hosting the event stood up and said a few words. One thing he said that we hadn’t realized was that BBC America was sponsoring the event, and that this was going to be the first of a monthly series. As it was sponsored by BBC America, they had provided official Doctor Who merchandise as giveaways. The host asked several related trivia questions; I answered the first question and got a Cyberman toy as a prize. :-) It was very difficult for me to stay quiet for the other questions, though, as with one exception I knew the answers to all of them. Once the giveaways were finished, and we enjoyed the serial, complete with its bad special effects and obvious wire-work. :-)

In the end, we had a great time. Even Jennifer enjoyed watching the serial more on a big screen and with an audience than she did on my plain TV set. The host did mention that this event will happen on the last Saturday of every month; it’s a shame that we already have plans for the last Saturday of November, as the announced serial for the next event is “The Claws of Axos”, one of the first stories to feature the Master. We’ll almost certainly try to go to the December one, though.

All in all, though, it was a lot of fun, and I highly recommend giving it a try if you’re interested in seeing some of the original Doctor Who.