Friday night, went to see Barry Manilow. I’ve never been a big fan, but I appreciate a decent pop tune like his or Streisand or Clooney and they are all consummate showpeople so the opportunity to see him perform live, when my wife’s best friend impelled my wife to attend, drew me to the show.
I think I’d enjoy an Einsturzende Neubauten concert more (with earplugs, surely)…but San Jose, cultural stepchild to SF/Berkeley, rarely gets anything but the big pop acts.
The opening act (whose name escapes me, it was that “eh”) was ok, it seemed more like a high school jazz band than a professional act, but apparently many folks enjoyed it. I thought the funk melody was particularly eh, if I wanted to hear some good funk, it wouldn’t be from a mediocre jazz band. And the engineering was ok, the lead singer’s keyboard was barely audible in parts.
Then, after much time, Manilow’s show started. Boy was it loud! Isn’t that sad, to say that a Manilow show was too loud for me? But I suppose, given the screaming from the ladies a couple seats to my left, I wouldn’t have heard anything if it weren’t turned up to 11. But at that volume, all tonality dies and all I hear is white noise. Luckily, that only plagued the opening (and closing) songs, and the best part (the slower tunes) were quiet enough to be pleasant. A little feedback on the louder tunes, but overall well engineered and produced. Manilow was the image of showman, playing off his act in parts as unscripted, and adding in some unscripted interactions with the audience in stride. Overall, a worthwhile show.
Saturday-Monday were occupied by Dundracon, in San Ramon. I am not a big fan of big gaming cons (I forget which was the last one I went to, up in Burlingame) but the bug hit me, and a friend highly recommended the con.
Saturday: arrived ~8:30am, too late to crash a Saturday 8am game, and not likely to crash a 10am game. I was surprised that games had started but the reg desk didn’t open ’til 9:30am. The staff took my $50 and gave me a badge with efficiency, but they all seemed dour. Yeah, a con is a lot of work, and a lot of attendees are real losers and quite annoying, but a little friendly banter or at least a smile would have been nice when I’m being friendly with them. (And unlike other attendees, I didn’t stand in the way while I tried to make chit-chat about my favorite game of the week.)
It would also be much more realistic to have all games start at the same time in their slot (say 9-1, 2-6, 7-11) and any game lasting more than 4 hours should take two slots…Or a timeline chart showing the start and end times would make it much more clear what commitments I was making when I registered for a particular game.
I registered for afternoon games and then wandered around to find a pickup game. About the only games that folks were playing in the open gaming were Euro games, which I will only play with friends when forced. They’re all good, but I didn’t feel like learning yet another game.
A new game designer was doing demos of a fun party game called MagnetX which uses polished hematite magnets on an acrylic square playfield. Place a magnet on the field without forcing others off or letting any touch. Basic, fun, and enjoyable for a while, and a game my wife would play since the rules are extremely simple. Bought a copy and some other games from the game room, and had time to spare. Wandered some more, checked out the Axis & Allies collectible war game going on, played a fun game of Zombies!!! with some guys.
The afternoon game I ended up in was a “Spirit of the Century” game. I really like the system, based on the FUDGE open gaming system. The aspects are particularly fun; for example I added an aspect to my character called, “Ear-piercing scream.” If I burn a fate point, I can use the scream to my advantage. If the GM gives me a fate point, he can use the aspect against me. Overall the game was ok, the GM seemed distracted and unprepared but overall he was able to carry the evening well enough. Ending up before 10pm, I took the opportunity to head home and catch some sleep.
I heard that a drop-in Dark Heresy (the new Warhammer 40k RPG) session was starting at 8am, but I found out that it started at 10am instead. I was concerned that it would leave me with few options, and an old-school AD&D session started at 8am. I was able to crash the game and enjoyed it fully. Old school dungeon crawl with a great DM. Afternoon, played a pickup game of Hackmaster, which was new to me. I really enjoy the Hackmaster system; it addresses what was wrong with AD&D, adds a great deal of detail and unity (combining many of the add-ons from AD&D), and maintains the old-school feel.
Monday was spent playing a very quick (and very deadly) Descent game, followed by Ticket to Ride, a couple demos of Go Stop (a Korean flower card game).