Jeez Jon

The Best Film From 2007?

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.  One of the best documentaries I have seen in a long time.  It's the story of a put-upon Everyman science teacher Steve Wiebe challenges the world's record in Donkey Kong, and the huge amount of nerdy drama he goes through in order to prove it.  Obviously, I'm a little biased when it comes to documentaries about gaming (or more specifically, awesome mockumenatries about gaming that are currently available all over North America -- buy one today!), but King of Kong is one of the most solidly constructed films I've come across. 

The world's record in Donkey Kong is held by Billy Mitchell, which is hands-down the best American film villain to come down the pike in a long time. With his shoulder-length Jesus mullet, his tritely patriotic ties and haughty demeanor, Mitchell is exactly the megalomaniac tool you'd think he'd be.  The cult of personality he's built around himself as "the world's best classic video gamer" is just jaw-dropping. When Wiebe does challenge the record Mitchell established in 1982 (yes, 25 years ago),  Mitchell's nerdy toadies do their best to discredit Wiebe's accomplishments, all fueling Mitchell's sizable ego. I mean, here's a taste of Mitchell here:

Oh yes. This man knows he is saying this on camera, thinking he's coming across as the God amongst the Gamer Nerds.  Let's put this in perspective, shall we?  It's FUCKING DONKEY KONG! It's a video game, for cry eye!  Jesus, people, it's like saying I'm the best at Monopoly - who gives a shit?  But that's the awesome thing about King of Kong is that these people live for this shit.  I'm not one to poo-poo someone's hobby, but when I'm sitting around my living room, playing D&D, I know it's just a fun past time and I don't put anymore importance on it than that.  But these guys?  Oy.

King of Kong is amazingly entertaining. With Wiebe as the underdog and Mitchell as the bad guy, it's the ultimate story of one man battling against the odds. Wiebe has victories and defeats along the way, and you will be sitting at the edge of your seat, hoping Wiebe comes out triumphant. There's even an 80's-style training montage as Wiebe gears up for a big tournament. Who can argue with that? 

Rent this movie. You will not be disappointed.

Heard A New Slogan Today

I was listening to Stephanie Miller on my way to work today, as I like my political coverage mixed with a heavy dose of comedy.  There have been a lot of callers complaining over the past couple days weeks, saying that if their candidate (either Obama or Clinton) doesn't get the nomination, they'll vote for McCain.  This makes my heart sink.  A lot.  I realize that it's only March (okay, almost April), but we have a long way until the vote in November, and it's way too early for people to start being pissy.  And, honestly, while McCain at least comes across as only a half-douchebag instead of the usual Republican Pedigree Douchebag candidates (*cough* Romney *cough*), he's still not a good choice.  I'm not fond of Clinton's tactics lately, but she's light years better than McCain.

Anyways, there's been all these complaints coming in.  Then one woman in her 50's called in and put it all in perspective:

Woman: "I'm sick of all these people complaining, saying they'll vote for McCain if their person doesn't get the nomination.  Well, Edwards was my candidate, and you don't hear me complaining like a little bitch."

That's my new slogan:  "Democrats: Stop Complaining Like A Little Bitch". Let's focus on winning in the fall, ok?

When Worlds Collide

New Gaymer Mafia podcast is up. Tom and I discuss the perils when different sets of friends (i.e. gamer friends and non-gamer friends) meet.  This was sparked by a rather obnoxious birthday party we attended over the weekend.  Enjoy!

Bill Clinton Does a Cranky Two-Step

In a discussion with 4 college journalists for MTVU, President Bill Clinton defends his support of the Defense of Marriage Act, saying that it leads to less discrimination for gays and lesbians since it won't force other states to recognize gay marriages in other states. And he's rather testy as well.

This argument makes no sense.  Here's the "for instance": a gay couple gets married in Massachusetts.  Then one of them gets transferred for their job to Utah.  By forcing Utah to recognize that marriage, the couple then doesn't have to worry about whether or not they have hospital visitation rights or health insurance or estate problems.  The best way to help fight against discrimination is exposure, and having boring married gay couples around a bunch of straights is the easiest way for the close-minded to see we're just as dull as they are. And if a bunch of Mormons in Salt Lake City see how human we married gays are, then that will help bring down discrimination.

More on this topic later. [Link courtesy of Joe.My.God.]

Scientology Explained in Under 3 Minutes

In its twelve years on the air, South Park continues to be edgy, provocative, and hilarious.  They now have a site (in Beta form) where you can watch and download clips of the show.  One of my favorite episodes is "Trapped in the Closet", combining the craziness of Scientology with the camp disaster of R. Kelly.  Here's their distillation of the hidden core beliefs of Scientology:

The breadth of Scientology's hold on Hollywood is just frightening. I'm all for one using their belief system to help navigate the dicey waters of this industry; it's another thing all together to use one's belief system to take advantage of those starry-eyed naifs who arrive in town as well.  The more people point out the ridiculousness of Scientology, the less scary they become.

[Link: courtesy of Andrew Sullivan]

Spring Has Sprung

Spring has finally arrived.  I'm sure many of you non-SoCal residents are sneering "How can you TELL?"  Trust me, you can tell.  It hit me on Friday.  See, I had a long week.  A really, really long week.  My writing partner and I were finished up the first rough pass on our last episode, resulting in my being at work for 12 hours a day Monday through Wednesday.  Couple that with the back-to-back episodes we've been responsible for, I've been rather stressed lately, as you can imagine.  On Thursday, I had jury duty.  Yes, in the middle of all of this, I had jury duty.  As is the law in the Golden State, they have the 1 Day/1 Case policy.  This means you are called in for a day of service.  This involves sitting in a large waiting room for 1 day, where they have the 8 hours to try to put you on a case.  Fortunately, they place people by how many days off your company pays for jury duty.  As you can imagine, television pays for ZERO days, which meant I was put in the short cases section.  The only down side is the day starts at 7:45am. Yeesh.  After sitting in the jury waiting room for about 2 hours, I was randomly selected for consideration for a criminal case.  This selection process started before lunch and wasn't finished by 4:15 pm.  So, the judge ordered us all back in court the next day at 10am to finalize jury selection.  I then went into work, and was there until about 9pm, doing the final pass on our last episode.  You can only imagine how tired I was. 

Friday, however, was a different story. Since I didn't have to be downtown until 10am, I was able to sleep in some.  And go check on Squeaky while Krystyn was in NC getting the rest of her stuff.  I was able to make my way downtown with plenty of time.  The parking for jury duty is at the curvilinear monstrosity known as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which is a good 10 minute walk from the courthouse.  After doing the walk and waiting in the hall, we picked back up with the jury selection process.  The attorneys has gone through about 24 of the pool, with a good 15 of us sitting  in the benches in the back... which was  where I was the whole time.  We started back up at 10am sharp, and the attorneys settled on their jury by... 10:30.  That's right, one half hour later, and they were done.  And with that, my jury duty was done.  I got my release form about 10 minutes later, and by 10:45am I was out the door.

It really hit me Spring had sprung on my walk back to my car.  It was mid-morning in downtown Los Angeles.  72 degrees out with a nice cool breeze, and a few clouds dotted the sky.  Jury Duty was out of my hair, it was Friday, and the hard part of the rest of my job was behind me.  I took a deep breath, let a big smile creep across my face, and I jauntily walked back to my car. 

When I finally got to work, all my coworkers commented my good mood.  The combination of getting all the episodes in and my increasingly bad commute has led me to being less than chipper lately.

Deana: "Wow.  Old Jon is back."

Me: "That's right, bitches!"

I've been smiling ever since. I love Spring.

PS: A shout out to Brett and Champ on their anniversary.  Congrats, you guys!  Another reason to smile.

This One Is For The Ladies

New Gaymer Mafia podcast is up.  Tom and I interview our buddy Krystyn, who brings in the bisexual girl gamer/designer perspective.  Enjoy!

A More Perfect Union Indeed

Wow. If he didn't have my vote before, he has it now.  A great speech. 

What's Been Occupying My Time...

You wanna see what's been keeping me away from home for 50 hours a week for the past 3 months, giving me a good paycheck?   TLC's Trading Spaces, and one of the episodes I've worked on debuts this Saturday night, 9pm/8pm CST. All I can say is Saturday's episode deals with rival Vegas celebrity impersonators.  As you can imagine, it's rather fun.  I'm an Assistant Story Producer, which means I scripted the bulk of the episode. I then worked with a writing partner (my Story Producer), a bevy of editors, executives, and network suits to help form the fun program you get to watch.  As you can tell by that progression, I'm a bit low on the totem pole, but I'm having a blast.  It's a lot of work, but oodles of fun.  I've worked on two earlier episodes this season: Episode 2 (Mom Vs. Daughter) and Episode 5 (Feuding Neighbors). The clickable episode guide can be found here.  I also helped out on portions of Episodes 1 & 3.  I also have 2 more episodes coming down the pike, which is why I've been working my little butt off.   

The show's good and fun, and in an added bonus, my name will be in the credits, blinking by at the speed of light. 

New Project!

Not ones to sit back on our laurels, Tom and I have a new project, called Gaymer Mafia.  It's a blog  about the intersection of gays and games, mostly RPG's and the like. The main thrust of Gaymer Mafia is our podcast.  These are mostly discussions and informal chats between Tom and I, and special guests.  This week's guest is our friend David, who talks about what it's like to be bisexual in a very geeky world.  Come listen when you have a chance...