A Trip to Narnia

I took my wife to see The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe tonight. I never did read those books, but I remember seeing an animated version when I was younger. Prior to going into the movie theater, the only thing I remembered was a faun with a parasol. That was it. As the events unfolded onscreen, I remembered more and more.

When you get down to it, I liked the movie. I understand that it's more of a child's fantasy story...a fairy tale, for lack of a better description. My taste for fantasy is more along the lines of the gritty world presented in Conan the Barbarian or, to some extent, Jackson's envisioning of The Lord of the Rings. Much the same, I prefer my science fiction dirty rather than sterile; I'm keen on the Nostromo in Ridley Scott's Alien, rather than the Enterprise in Roddenberry's Star Trek. After all, something that big has got to have tons of grease and grime in it somewhere.

As for the allegory of Christ/Aslan, I say: big deal. It wasn't a word-for-word parable, and it certainly didn't smack me in the face. Sometimes the characters seemed a bit shallow, and I would've almost preferred Patrick Stewart to Liam Neeson as Aslan (I kept hearing, "No, Anakin!" in my head, over and over again).

Anyway...I'm not much for really deep, in depth movie reviews, unless I'm either a) blown away or b) completely offended. I'll buy it when it hits DVD, if for no other reason than to let the boy watch it.

Speaking of young children: what is it with parents who bring their young (ie, less than a year old) children to crowded, loud movies? Does it surprise them when their child cries, shouts, whines, or screams? Not only are they being unfair to the child, who doesn't know any better than to cry, shout, whine, and scream, but they're being unfair to the rest of the folks in the audience who've dropped a good wad of cash to see a first-run movie.

They've got commercials that remind folks to silence their cell phones. What I want to see is a movie theater that doesn't permit folks to bring in children below a certain age, unless the screening in question is specifically for such children and their parents. I'm not about to drag my nine month-old son along to see a movie, and I would expect other folks to have the same sort of courtesy.

I guess it's too much to ask of some people.

I want to send a shout out to Dave Lucca, one of the guys from the Friday night games I used to play in. Just before the previews started, I saw a fellow who looked suspiciously like Dave sitting three seats down from my wife, and I managed to catch his eye -- and it was, indeed, Dave. It was good to see him. He's a great role-player, a bit on the dramatic side (it's the Italian blood in him, I'll wager).

Speaking of previews: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest looks like it's going to be a fine time. Can't wait for that one. Seven months is going to seem like eternity.

You might be wondering how the writing went today. All I can say is: freaking stat blocks. I spit on them! Ptooey! Building high-level characters in d20 is like building pyramids the old Egyptian way. Once they're together they look pretty good, but unless you've got thousands of slaves and easy access to a slide rule, it's going to take a while.

Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but by the time they kicked me out of the coffee shop, my eyes felt like rasins.

I say "kicked me out," but it wasn't quite like that. Some fellow (I'm not even sure he was an employee) came over to me and asked if I would mind relocating to another table in the joint, seeing as there was a performance about to start (and I was near one of the two easily-accessible power outlets in the whole place). I considered telling him, "No, I'm sorry. The fate of Aryth depends on the work I do today. Find another coffee shop to schill your cheap, infantile mewlings."

Still, it was after 1pm, and I'd been calculating skill points, feats, and saving throws for nigh on three hours. I decided to be merciful. Plus, staying while a "show" was being put on is not a good way to get writing done. I can only guess what sort of dubious musical act they had waiting in the wings.

Enough for today. Mid-life crisis aside, it's been a good day so far. Another 90 minutes, and I'll be tucking myself in. Seven hours after that, I'll be dragging my ass out of bed to go to work. There's stuff that needs buying, and I'm the guy to buy it.