Adieu to the Rock of Boston. One of the sadder moments in the retrospective weekend was Adam 12 playing bands that he said he’d always wanted to play and never could. One suspects that had be been allowed to do so, WBCN would still be going strong.
This may be my last post here. I’ll find out soon.
Today’s show was the last at WBCN. As you know, T&R will move to 98.5 FM. I will probably be doing my schtick there too. I don’t know what I will be doing on their site, though.
Sorry for the lack of an update last week. I had computer problems. You missed a con in Connteticut and a big Magic toruney. Sorry.
The biggest event this week is not in New England. It’s further north. Yes the 2009 World Science Fiction Convention is in Montreal and I’M NOT THERE! DAMN IT!
Closer to home, the The Teseracte Players of Boston is finally teaming-up with the Rocky Horror cast in Harvard Square, The Full Body Cast. The Great Crossover Show” is this weekend at AMC Harvard Square, Saturday, Midnight.
Speaking of Midnight movies, Friday at the wtiching hour, The Rhode Island Film Festival presents Nightmares in Red White and Blue, a critically acclaimed documentary about horror films, at the Cable Car Cinema in Providence. Three horror shorts will precede the documentary.
The Brattle outdoes itself this week. Friday through Monday, 4:30 and 7 PM, they will be showing Alien in a brand new 35 MM print. Also the Muppets Take Manhattan will be shown Friday and Saturday and the Neverending Story will be shown Sunday and Monday
Saturday at 7, the Harvard Film Archive, as part of its Elia Kazan retrospective will show On the Waterfront.
Pandemonium will be running Imperial Seal Vintage Challenge, a vintage constructed event, 15 Proxy, $25.00 Entry. Full Details at TheManaDrain.com. I think this is a Magic CCG thing.
Monday, 6:30 PM at the Hyde Park Branch Library, Local SF author Dr. David Joutras will lecture on creating fictional worlds.
Don’t bother seeing the GI Joe movie. You’ve already seen it before in a score of more competently executed action flicks. Wait until it comes out on cable or Netflix and see it drunk. Better yet, make a drinking game of it. Drink for every action movie cliché, needless reference to the old cartoon, underwhelming CGI or a lame attempt at humor. All the tropes are there: former friends now enemies; the training montage a duel to the death in a detonating base and so on. Watching the flick, you have to turn your mind off lest the stupidity predictability and plot holes overwhelm you. The script could have been written by a pack of 12 year olds wired on circus peanuts and Mountain Dew as they killed a rainy afternoon with their action figures. Now that I recall my 12 year old days, I think my pals and I could have come up with something with more character development.
Some of the fights and action sequences are OK, but even the explosions get boring. Sienna Miller looks spectacular as the Baroness. Too bad they gave her dialogue. Some decent work by Byung-hun Lee, Christopher Eccleston Jonathan Pryce and Dennis Quaid are wasted in this flick. Channing Tatum is actively annoying while Marlon Wayans is only slightly less egregious.
Two out of five.
Now that’s more like it! There is both a con and a LARP this weekend.
Gaming
Up in New Hampshire, at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in Nasuha, evil wins at the Open Gaming Convention all weekend. Enjoy RPGs, board games, card games, miniatures, painting, video games, vendors and more! 3 Day adult registration is $45 dollars.
Interested in a LARP? Saturday at Camp Harrington, Boylston MA from 9 AM to 9 PM is the latest chapter in the NERO Saga: Volta – False Redemption. More infor at the link.
Speaking of gaming, yeah, more Magic 2010 at Pandemonium. You know the drill. Two magic tourneys are happening at Pandemonium this weekend. The first day is a cash challenge, with the grand prize of $175. (Entry fee is $45.). This event will be the same tournament structure if you make it to day 2!
The next day is the Grand Prix trial for the Grand Prix Boston on August 1st - August 2nd. $25.00 Entry, Sealed Deck with Top 8 Draft. REL Competitive. Qualifying event. Grand Prix Trials are a series of tournaments where players compete for a set of 3 early byes at Grand Prix Boston. The sealed format is 6 packs of M10 with a top 8 Draft. The top place is only the byes at the tournament, other prizes will be boosters of M10 based on attendance.
Imagine being challenged to make a film in 24 hours, on a specific day, say from 10PM on Friday, July 17th to 10PM on Saturday, July 18th and you had to have the theme of rent and have a light bulb as a surprise element. Well, over a dozen Boston filmmakers took that challenge and you can see the results this Saturday at 5 PM at the Boston Film Race!
The Harvard Film Archive is having a Sherlock Holmes retrospective. The most interesting showings is the Hound of the Baskervilles double feature Saturday at 7 PM. Both the 1939 and the 1959 versions will be shown.
This weekend is going to be a bit quieter than last. Still, there are fun activities to be found…
Gaming: Yes, another dang Magic release, or rather the unleashing of Magic 2010. Pandemonium and Your Move Games are there.
At Pandemonium, the fun starts at 12:01 AM Friday and continues with tournaments, drafts, boosters and open dueling. The fun culminates Sunday in a M10 Grand Prix Day 2 Cash Challenge. The entry fee is $45.00, and cash prizes go to the top eight players.
Your Move Games hosts a Magic 2010 Launch Party Event Sunday at 2 PM. But for them, the big event is next week. (That is not a threat. OK, maybe it is.)
Film: There are two sorts of films out there this weekend (aside from the mandatory mega blockbusters, chick flicks and usual tripe). The first are 80s nostalgia. The second is smut.
The Brattle leads off with 80s Nostalgia, with showings of This is Spinal Tap Friday and Saturday at 10, and Top Secret! Sunday and Monday at 10.
Saturday, Midnight, Jonny Cupcakes presents The Goonies.
The Harvard Film Archive calls it Le Film Maudit (the cursed film) we call it smut/filth. This weekend they’re showing notorious flicks including Fritz the Cat (Friday, 9:45pm), Pink Flamingos (Saturday, 7PM), and a double feature of the often banned Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom and Jean Genet’s Un chant d’amour (Sunday 7 PM).
Naughty: Speaking of which, time to break out the goodies you got at the FFF! Sin-O-Matic is back. Saturday night 1254 Boylston St. Boston. 21+. Dress code: all black at minimum (and have something of a fetish nature to be sure). Fetish wear encouraged/preferred. No jeans, sneakers, or normal clubwear allowed.
Obviously, if you are reading this, you are probably aware that WBCN will be going off the air and becoming all digial/web. The frequency will go to WBMX, currently 98.5. Their present position on the dial will become a sports talk station and T&Rs’ new home.
As for your humble servant, I don’t know what the fate of Warp Speed will be. I presume that I will be on the new station. If not, I will probably get my own URL and do a more SF oriented site for New England fandom.
There are two big evens this weekend. The first is Readercon, all weekend at the Burlington Marriott. The guests of honor for this literary oriented convention are Elizabeth Hand and Greer Gilman.
The other big event is the Summer Fetish Flea Market noon-6 Saturday at the BCA Cyclorama. Come on down for vendors, demonstrations, or just to press the bound and quivering flesh!
Speaking of Fetish events, A Fetish Beauty Friday night is happening from nine to 1 AM at is at Castillo’s Night Club, 355 Ferry Street, Everett.
Bastille Day is this Tuesday. Among the events held in celebration are a block party Sunday in Harvard Square (3-10) and ‘The Official Bastille Day Party,’ 9PM-2AM at the Liberty Hotel on Tuesday. This free event is sponsored by the Boston French Library.
Harry and the Potters, a duo that performs songs about… well, you can guess, will have to shows in Massachusetts. The first is Sunday at 3 PM in Gore Place Waltham (Admission: $10). The other is a free concert at Purgatory Chasm in Sutton Monday 8:15 PM.
The classic anime Blood the Last Vampire is translated for the big screen in a spectacular live action adaptation and it will be showing at the Kendall. It definitely is worth a look.
The Brattle wallows in nostalgia for that doubleplusgood year 1984. Every night this weekend, The Terminator is being shown, and Monday night at 9:30 the will screen the TV Party 1984, with some of the best and worst episodes and clips of those days when there were three big networks and the cable channels were minor.
In celebration of Errol Flynn’s Centennial, the Brattle will show The Adventures of Robin Hood, Monday at 3 PM, and Tuesday at 2:45, 5:00, 7:15 and 9:30 PM.
Gaming:
Magic: the Gathering 2010 Core Set is coming out. Pandemonium and Your Move Games will be holding events.
At Pandemonium, the fun starts at the stroke of Midnight Saturday, with a Midnight Madness Sealed Deck event, ($25). And the (I suppose) fun continues all day Saturday and Sunday. Check the site for details.
Your Move Games is holding its event This Saturday at the UMass Boston Campus Center. Doors at 9 am. There will be tournaments and booster drafts. Meet Guest Artists Cyril van der Haegen and Ryan Pancoast.
Less embarrassing is the one day Nero LARP one day event this Saturday at Camp Harrington in Boylston.Break out the bop swords!
Not much time as I am off to the Cape soon. So, what is there aside from the Pops and the fireworks?
In no particular order:
Topping everything is the ongoing Boston Harborfest, culminating in the Chowderfest.
At City Hall Plaza on the 4th celebrate Cape Verde at the Cape Verde festival from 2-5.
The Bald Eagle is America’s symbol. See one up close along with other raptors and owls for 3 shows (11, 12:30 and 2) at the Gore Place in Waltham Sunday the 5th.
At Pandemonium, on the 4th at 1:00 is a Magic: the Gathering Alara Block Constructed Cash Tournament: $25.00 entry,. Sets legal for this tournament include Shards of Alara, Conflux and Alara Reborn. Deck lists are required. We’ll be firing up the grill for this event for Magic Players and store customers. Prizes will go to top 8 players (Top 4 if 16 players or fewer). Prizes scale with attendance.
Then the next day at Pandemonium is store inventory. They will be open for gaming and soda and snack sales will be allowed. If you want to earn store credit and score dinner afterward, e-mail tyler at pandemoniumbooks.com with “Store Inventory” in the subject line. Include weather or not you have a laptop computer, experience with Open Office Calc / Microsoft Excel, and use of retail scanners.
Easy Rider is being shown at the Brattle to the 9th.
And now for the WTF event of the week. Ever heard of the ‘Three Penny Opera?’ You know, ‘Mack the Knife?’ Well, that was based on ‘The Beggar’s Opera,’ a 1728 satire. Brecht adapted an English opera into German and then it became a hit in English. The original is being performed July 4th at 6 PM at the Daniel Arts Center 84 Alford Rd. Great Barrington. Tickets available online.
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