Posts Tagged ‘High Mud Festival’

Problem Solvers …Ish

Tuesday, March 1st, 2016

While Leap Day may now be over, I’m taking my own leap forward with a brand new podcast:

Problem Solvers …ish

Each week, Lex Friedman and I will apply our not not inconsiderable problem-solving prowess to a listener-submitted issue. Since we’ve just launched, we’re short on said listeners and submissions, so it would be quite helpful if you wanted to give a listen and/or click the button to leave us a voice message (anonymously) with your problem you want solved.

Boardgame-wise, newest games I’ve played include Mystery! Motive for Murder (which features Edward Gorey art) and Booty, although Zavandor and Grand Austria Hotel are the two I’ve continued to enjoy the most. Videogame-wise, in addition to the ever-present SolForge addiction, I’ve fallen back into Marvel Heroes. Yes, as an aRPG, it’s not nearly as in-depth as the (also free, delightful) Path of Exile, but where PoE is very hardcore, MH provides a pleasant casual experience branded with my favorite Marvel characters, so I can run around as Luke Cage while Deadpool follows me and tells pirate jokes.

I’ll be telling a few jokes of my own in less than two weeks at the High Mud Comedy Festival, as will Ophira Eisenberg, Dave Hill, Sean Patton, Tom Lewis, Mark Jagiello, and the amazing Tig Notaro. If you are (or can be) in the Berkshires, and like comedy, you should buy tickets and come enjoy some live stand-up.

If you will not be in the Berkshires, but still want to laugh, go back to the top of this post and listen to my new podcast. Or you can read some of my recent columns about Leap Year and Spring Cleaning. Or you could inhale some nitrous oxide, but listening to and reading my comedy is probably better for your health.

January 35th!

Thursday, February 4th, 2016

You’d think monthly updates would not be so difficult, but it’s so easy to lose track of things.

Hopefully by next post I’ll have big updates on my collaborative comedy, both musical and podcast. What I can say now is that I am proud, excited, and honored to be doing a few minutes of stand-up to open for Tig Notaro in March, which is clearly a new high point for my stand-up comedy career.* I also wrote columns about how I needed new shoes and dealt with jury duty.

A number of new boardgame reviews up in the past two months, although my two favorite games were probably King Chocolate and Grand Austria Hotel. Interestingly, the two games are almost opposite; Grand Austria hotel is a number of interesting mechanics and random cards all interwoven into a very satisfying colorful game with a lot going on, while King Chocolate is a no-frills elegant little game with simple rules and pieces but tons of emergent gameplay.

In the video game world, finally beat Risen, which like most of the Gothic-series games, had a slow difficult start but certainly got more and more compelling as the game continued. Started playing Divinity: Original Sin with a friend in Canada**, and still mucking about with SolForge and enjoying the deckbuilding even if I’m not terribly good at it.

Speaking of things I’m not terribly good at, so far so bad with my usual new years resolution of getting together with local friends more often. But the year is young yet, even if I feel older*** every day.

*Sorry, 2-hour-long gig to unsuspecting patrons at Applebee’s, you’ve been demoted.

**”We are living in the future, and it is glorious.” This continues to be my reaction to real-time gaming with friends in other countries.

***Mostly due to aches and pains. Although since I technically am older every day, I’m not wrong.