Circle of Hell, Seventh

So that post about the disappearing popular culture, indie-style art and leisure sites in Bowling Green? Apparently it was pretty damn prescient. The Cla-zel will be closing (indefinitely) a week from yesterday.

Oh, this city...

Are you there, Cthulhu? It's me, J.

The upside of today: I'm halfway done with my classes. I'm almost done writing my first DG scenario in months. There are bottles of Corsendonk brown and Delirium Tremens in my fridge.

The downside of today: the performance/presentation wasn't as smooth as I'd hoped. My body is a sanity check away from collapse. I won't be able to open those bottles until after 10 p.m.

------------------

I need to find a way to get my work online without having to pay for webspace or subsrcibing to annoying ad sites. Because the blog isn't a good format for them, especially my performance piece on RPGs. Hrm.

In the meantime, feel free to peruse my column from a couple weeks back. I think it's one of the best I've done. Ever. This one on cornhole is okay... it's funnier if you read the comments.

Someday, I'm gonna fix this blog so it can have comments. I just don't wanna give up MB's design, and I have no time to learn basic CSS.

Back to sucking it up at Stinkoman 20X6.

Chaos(ium)!

I think sometimes instructors misunderstand grad school. Rather than classes involving projects and papers that are more involved and complex and in-depth, they sometimes follow this pattern: Take a senior-level class, lengthen the page requirements, and add more assignments. Argh! If we barely had time to do all this crap as an undergrad, how are we supposed to have time to do even more? Do grad students have the magic ability to handle more work than students should technically be able to?

But no more bitching: I must go home to my big Call of Cthulhu order... it should be there now! Huzzah!

The Circle of Life?

Ladies and germs of the general bored public: Those of us at BGSU know that said university is home to one of the only Popular Culture departments. This place has pop culture oozing out of its weeping pustules.

Eww.

Anyway, you'd think that this town would therefore have an overabundance of cool shops catering to collegiate pop culture. Well, the city of Bowling Green does have two fine indie music shops. And... we've got coffee shops. After that, it's rather disappointing.

Used book store? No, that finally went belly-up a couple years back. There are used books in a coffeehouse, which is cool... except that it's owned by one of those "local rich asshole" types.

Comic book store? No, that disappeared in the last year, after years of flirting with zoning issues and profitablitly. Now there's only a random selection at Waldenbooks in the sMall.

Art movie house? That we got. Although it, too, was bought out by the aforementioned local rich asshole, and its collegiate staff canned. My girlfriend is still bitter.

Gaming store? Not anymore. I stopped by the ol' R&B News, looking to pick of the new White Dwarf and browse the 40K selection. I was a little surprised when the door was propped open, and a chair lay on its side, blocking the entrance. More surprising, though, were the barren walls and the notice that the paintball portion of the store was moving to another city. What about the games? The man-in-charge said, he knows not.

Damn, that's depressing. The only thing keeping me from wailing and gnashing my teeth is a new deli I found, Stimmel's Market. They have big ol' bottles of Corsendonk brown ale. Oooh. The gods, they giveth, yet they taketh a lot more away.

Is this a bad thing?: I just spent over $100 on Call of Cthulhu / Delta Green material.

I justify it as an academic expense. Damn straight.

Ever wanted to see Macbeth's tartan?

(Taken from ScotClans.)

To be honest, though, records of Scottish clans before the 1200s are spotty and barely substantiated (at best). 'Macbeth' was probably a version of 'Macbean,' or not. He might have been from the Rosse clan, and he was probably related to Duncan, depending on who you read.

Can you tell I have Macbeth on the mind? I shouldn't. Auditions are only half over, and my classwork is piling up. Ack. In advance, my thanks to all who've auditioned or are about to. And here's to hoping that people remember that the arts, especially theatre, are about enjoying the process. Not only is this not professional, it's barely academic. It's for the sheer enjoyment of creation.

(Yeah, I know, that's horribly un-"grad student" of me to say. If you want the academic support, read Victor Turner or Robert Stebbins.)

Welcome to April. It will own your Soul.

I know, always the optimist.

San Diego was freakin' awesome. I got to hang out with Laura, run into Becca, and get to know Rick. Not that most of you know them, but I've said my piece. The paper went over well, and I got to converse with many cool folks.

This week was meant to involve more creative and academic works on the ol' blogs, but I'm barely keeping up in either. The first week back from the conference has been brutal... and auditions for Macbeth are next week. Eeep.