Producer Paul's Ramblings

The trip started out fine, if a little late. I wasn’t late. Thanks to Tony, I was at the airport in plenty of time, but the flight was delayed about an hour. That shouldn’t be much of a surprise anymore, I suppose. I went to the checkout to check my one piece of luggage and the helpful clerk at the counter told me at my luggage would go all the way to Porto Alegre. I asked if she was sure, because I had to recheck myself in when I got to Brazil. She said “yes,” so I believed her. Silly me. 

Got on the plane that would take me to Miami. A tiny plane. One of those puddle jumpers that has two seats on one side of the aisle and one on the other. Tiny. But at least it had jets and not propellers. I got to my seat to find a man sitting in the seat beside mine and a young boy in the single seat. The man said the boy was his son and if I wanted the single seat the boy could take mine. Score! Of course I agreed, so I got the two- hour Miami flight in relative comfort. Time to do some writing and read a book. I’m reading “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins. Excellent book.

So we land in Miami. Easy, smooth flight. The plane to Rio is an hour behind schedule, so at least I don’t have to rush to get to the plane.  I grab some overpriced pasta from the little Pizza Hut and just as I sit down to eat it, they announce a gate change. So I truck down to the new gate, pasta and carry-in in tow. Turns out there really wasn’t any reason to rush. We sat at that gate for another 45 minutes, so the flight actually ends up 90 minutes late.

But we finally get on the plane for Rio just before 10 pm. Hooray. This is a big plane, a nice 767, so it’s going to be fairly comfortable. But then things get better. I’m in the center row, with three seats, and no one else shows up to sit in the row. I have it all to myself. Another score. So after dinner (chicken and rice, which was decent for airline food) I stretch out in the row and actually get some sleep, something very unusual for me on an airplane.

We get to Rio at around 8am and this is where the words of the agent in Charlotte return to bite me, although I don’t know it. I should have been more alert. The signs were there, but I had just finished an overnight flight and so wasn’t at the top of my game. Plus the flight delay left me with less than an hour to get my flight to Porto Alegre (or so I thought). Went to passport control which took about 30 agonizing minutes to get through, so now I’m having to book it to get to my next flight. I go through customs, which is a breeze, but I should have noticed other people taking luggage. No, I’m in too much of a hurry. I get to the checkout counter, where there is a line, but an agent asks for people going to Porto Alegre and takes us to the front. I check in, and the woman seems surprised I had no luggage. Second clue, and it was here I began to get a little suspicious, but I seemed to remember seeing a tag on the bag that said Porto Alegre, so I hope. Silly me again.

Once more, on the flight to Porto Alegre, I had a row all to myself. I certainly can’t complain about ever being crowded on the trip. We arrive at the airport and I go to baggage claim. As you know by now, that was a silly waste of time. I speak to the baggage agent and he explains that I should have claimed my luggage in Rio and rechecked it. As I’ve sort of worked this out for myself, that is not very helpful. But he takes my information and says they will deliver the bag either that evening or in the morning. As  I write this, it’s 10:30 the next morning and still no bags.

But, that aside, things have been pleasant . My hosts, Joao, Nicolas, and Filipe, are all very gracious and accommodating. I have had some wonderful food so far, and the screening went well. My hotel is nice and spacious. People seemed to enjoy the movie and asked a lot of good questions. They taped the session, which is something that hasn’t happened before, so I’m hoping I can get a copy.

So now it’s the next morning and I’m waiting for my hosts to arrive. We are supposed to go to the public market today and then Joao is having a barbecue for us tonight (there are other producers and directors here, but so far the only one I’ve met is Italian horror director Luigi Cozzi, a very nice man.) It is raining though, so I’m not sure how much that is going to change our plans. But so far it’s been an enjoyable trip. I do wish my luggage would show up though. I’m wearing a Fantaspoa shirt that was a gift, and two day old socks and underwear. It’s not pleasant.

More later.

It’s been three months since my last blog post. That’s what happens when life intrudes I suppose.  Watched Thirst last night on the recommendation of a friend. Helps that I really liked Oldboy.

This is an interesting and original take on the vampire tale (and those are getting harder and harder to come by). It starts with a priest who is losing faith in his ability to help people. He volunteers for an unusual experiment involving the search for a cure for the EV virus.  The experiment is a “failure and the priest “dies” but then immediately comes back. He soon discovers that in order to keep the disfiguring symptoms of the disease at bay, he must drink human blood.  He finds himself in a moral quandary, which is further tested by his desire to seduce the wife of a childhood friend.

From that point, things spin quickly out of control.  If you’ve seen Oldboy, you have a pretty good idea of how strange this movie becomes. If you haven’t, saying much more would ruin the surprise. Suffice to say, the lesson becomes be careful what you wish for.

I found this movie enjoyable for the most part. Nicely directed and acted, with some nice, very graphic special effects, a few of which actually made me wince (but then, I have a thing about fingernails. We’ll leave it at that).  The only real downside was I thought it could have been about 10-15 minutes shorter. At 2:13, it’s a little long for the type of movie it is. A few places the director was obviously going for tension didn’t quite work and just seemed drawn out. But overall this one is worth a watch, especially if you are a fan of the director’s other work.

7/10

So, I’ve gotten a little behind on putting up my thoughts on the movies I’ve watched. Happens when I get busy.  Since I last check in I’ve seen, in order, The Hangover (unrated edition), Sherlock Holmes, and World’s Greatest Dad.

The Hangover (absurd) – I had heard from many people that this was an extremely, gut-bustingly funny movie.  I’m always leary of that claim, because my humor doesn’t always jibe with others.  (I hated Old School, and refuse to watch Borat) However, I found this movie quite chuckle (and outright laugh) worthy. I can imagine it would have been even more fun to watch in a crowded theater with lots of other folks laughing.  The plot is simple. Four friends go to Las Vegas for a last bash bachelor party, one of them puts a drug in their drinks, and they all wake up the next morning with a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet,  a trashed hotel room, and one of their quartet missing.  The rest of the time they spend (hilariously) finding out exactly what happened to them and where their missing friend is.

Zach Galifinakis is the stand out of the four, as a dim-witted, perverted lout who nonetheless has a Rain Man like ability with counting cards (which comes in handy when they have to come us with some quick money) Another standout (in a minor but important role) is Ken Jeong as a gay (I’m pretty sure he was gay) Asian gangster who our heroes run afoul of. His introduction scene had me almost falling off the couch.

The only real problem I had was that the missing friend’s location would have easily been figured out by the hotel staff long before our heroes did, but that’s a minor problem when you’re having this much fun. It’s a crude movie, full of some raunchy humor, and definitely not for the kids, but it was a good time.

7/10

Sherlock Holmes (light) – This is the Robert Downey film directed by British action director Guy Ritchie. The plot is convoluted (more than it needed to be) but involves a Lord Blackwell’s attempt to essentially take over Britain on his way to ruling the world, all by using “magic,” which turns out to have a little more logical explanation.

This is a light-hearted film, despite the somewhat grim, perpetually cloudy look of Victorian London. Much of this is due to the whimsical nature of the relationship between Downey’s Holmes and Jude Law’s Watson.  I just wish these enjoyable characters could have been in a better movie. It’s not bad, it’s just over-produced and over-plotted. By overproduced, I mean they seem to have scenes in there just because they had lots of money to spend, the most notable being a fight between Downey and a huge man with a sledgehammer that ends with an under construction ship being unmoored from its drydock and sunk.  Guy Ritchie can do action, but he’s better with edgy, independent fare, and he had to play this one safe. To make up for it, he took the action to 11. It’s loud and busy, but not necessarily effective.  Overall, this movie was a noisy, not all that intelligent summer blockbuster masquerading as an above average Christmas film. I wish I would have deduced that before I went to see it.

5/10

World’s Greatest Dad (dark) – When you have Robin Williams in a film directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, you know you’re in for something unusual, and this movie didn’t disappoint. Williams plays a poetry teacher and aspiring (but failing) writer who has a perverted, foul-mouthed, completely hateful 15-year-old son. The father’s life is miserable, his classes are poorly attended, and his sometime girlfriend may be cheating on him. He’s a pushover who hates his life and his son.

But then something happens (a major plot point that I’m not going to give away.  And if you rent it from Netflix, don’t read the synopsis. It’s a major spoiler.) which completely changes everyone’s life, mostly for the better.  The rest of the film deals with the characters’ reaction to what happened.

I really enjoyed this film. It’s definitely a dark kind of movie, with biting humor and a few not very likable characters, but it was always intriguing. It wouldn’t be for everyone (you have to be willing to accept the idea of a porn-watching, chronically masturbating 15-year-old, for starters) but if you can handle the subject matter, you might find it worth a watch. Bobcat called it a “comedy of the awkward” and I think that works.  The few problem I had were that I would have liked a little backstory as to why the character of the son (played with evil perfection by Darryl Sabara) was so hateful.  And, as much as I love Robin Williams, I had a little trouble accepting him as this character, since many of the lines came out like they could have been delivered in one of his stand-up routines.  He was calm in this one though, and I like calm Robin Williams better than manic Robin Williams.

7/10

That’s it for now. See you next time I watch something.

This is a repost of an essay I put on a Rotten Tomatoes forum:

So, I was putting up the Christmas tree tonight and drinking some fine Scotch and thinking about Avatar and the fine folks here on the RT forums.  Here is why I think Avatar will continue to do well and rake in lots of money and maybe even take Best Picture.  Know at the outset that none of this is meant to insult anybody or take sides. They are just my thoughts.

We here on the RT forums tend to forget that, although we are vocal, we are a minuscule portion of the movie-going public. If the movie going audience was a dog, we would be the tinest flea gnawing on its ass. There are maybe forty people who come in to these debates, and only 10 or so with any regularity.

We like to think we are tuned to a higher sensibility, and perhaps we are. The arguments we have over CGI realism is driven (I’m pretty sure) by a desire to see the art form move forward, and to force the talent behind it to be the best they can be, to wow us and show us things we don’t normally see and make them as real as possible.

We also want a better story. We want to hear lines we haven’t heard before, watch plots that aren’t derivitive, and see things told in a new way.

But you know what?  THE AVERAGE MOVIE GOER DOESN’T CARE ABOUT ANY OF THIS.  They want to be wowed and they want to be entertained and they want familiarity. The reason Transformers and Transformers 2 did so well is because it wowed people with cool robots and explosions, had the familiarity of being a childhood memory, and had a story that, while it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, provided the basic elements and had what people wanted.  It’s no secret I didn’t like the movie, but several of my friends enjoyed it very much. That’s fine.

People like to see justice done. They like to see the good guys win and the bad guys taken down. Transformer 2 (and Transformers) had that.  And just for the record, I liked the first Transformers.

New Moon is another good excample. It had the familiarity of being a best-selling book, and the story itself is little more than a vampiric variation of Romeo and Juliet.  Again, it’s familiar. People like things they’ve seen before. That’s why they buy DVDs and watch them over and over.  Familiarity equals comfort.

And so we come to Avatar.  The special effects are extraordinary. There are some who argue differently, and that’s fine. Again, they are tuned to a higher sensibility, but to the average moviegoer, the FX are jaw-droppingly beautiful and astoundingly realistic.  As I walked out of the theater both times, all around me people were buzzing about what they saw. The friends I took proclaimed it the best thing they’ve ever seen. These are people who don’t watch “Science at the Movies” or read articles about how it’s all made. These are average moviegoers. John Q. Public.

The same holds for the story. Yes, it’s derivitive of Dances With Wolves and Ferngully and Battle for Terra and Aliens and even a little bit of Apocalypse Now thrown in there.  But the average movie-goer doesn’t care.  Again, good guys win, bad guys punished.  People want to know what’s going to happen. In a grand entertainment, they like feeling one step ahead.

Filmmakers and scriptwriters are in a “damned if they do, damned if they don’t” position. If they make something too predictable, they are accused of being formulaic. If they make it too esoteric, nobody wants to watch it, becuase they don’t understand it, and thus are not entertained by it.  James Cameron had a bit of a straight jacket on him.  He spent $300 million dollars.  If he made the story too high-brow, too science-fictiony, it would have been a niche film, appealing to a very limited audience (Think about Donnie Darko or Mulholland Drive. Great movies, but limited audience appeal)

Therefore, he had to go with a familiar story, and he follows the classic three-act structure beatifully. He’s giving the audience exactly what they want. Wow factor + familirity = hit movie.  It scored 83%, which means four out of five critics liked it.  I’m guessing the audience reaction is following pretty much along those same lines, so people will tell their friends to see it, and they’ll tell their friends.  And Avatar will continue to make money. Will it beat Titanic? Doubtful.  Will it be in the top ten? Most likely.

Cameron has done exactly what he set out to do. Titanic also had the wow factor plus familiarity motif, and it won 11 Oscars and became the all-time box office champ.  And the Academy has already had a favorable screening, so don’t be surprised if, come March 2010, we see Cameron walking up to accept a gold statue. After all, it’s something we’ve seen before, and people love a familiar story.

So I watched this on DVD last night and was so thankful I didn’t waste money or time at the theater to see it.  It just really wasn’t a very good movie, unfortunately.  I found the story weak, uncertain if it wanted to be an adventure film, a comedy, or a touching film about learning your place in the world.  Pixar can pull off that sort of combination.  Dreamworks, not so much.  There were a few funny lines, but overall it was much too over the top in the gags they tried to pull.  I supposed kids or stoned people might enjoy it, but it just didn’t do a whole lot for me.

3/10

And so we came to the final day of our gaming extraganza.  I again woke up early after being up late, so it was really beginning to feel like being at an actual con.  While many went to the beach for another round of wave crashing, I stay at the house, ate some cereal, and began reading the rules for one of the games that was going to hit the table, Twilight Imperium.

Once folks came back from the beach, the gaming commenced.

Winner’s Circle – This is a horse racing game, where you place bet based on the horse’s stats, shown on a card.  The horses run based on the roll of a die, and each person moves a horse of their choice for the round, based on the die roll and their betting strategy.  I enjoy this game and will always play it.  It requires a little strategy and a fair amount of luck, but it’s a great little half-hour time killer.  I came in last on this particular run.

Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation – This is a two-player game, a lot like the old Stratego , with hidden pieces each with a number value. Higher number wins, but the pieces have special abilities that will sometimes mitigate the numbers. You also have a hand of cards you can use to change the circumstances. This is one I own and I enjoy playing it.  It’s quick, easy to learn, but with a reasonable amount of strategy, and it’s Lord of the Rings themed.  What more can you ask.  I lost, by the way, but it was a close game, down to almost the last piece.

Wasabi – This game plays two-five people. You take the role of a sushi chef and must collect ingredients and placed that on the board.  If you play all the ingredients on one of your recipe cards, you score points.  If you play them in the proper order, you get “style” points.  We played a two-player game, me playing against Josh, the sushi master.  Not to be confused with Randal, who is the sushi eating master.  Needless to say, I lost badly, but I enjoy this game and would play it anytime it hits the table.  I would certainly like to try it with more than two people sometime.

Twilight Imperium – This was the monster (as in large) game for the weekend.  A six player game of trying to take over the galaxy, it pull in lots of mechanics, from territory control to player voting to player turn selection based on your objectives for the turn.  I liked the sheer size of the game and the amount of things you could do.  I like games that try to cram a lot into their play.  I’m not sure I liked the game itself, but that may have been due to the circumstances.  This is a game that requires some attention and focus, and in a house of twenty people, many of them kids, attention and focus are not usually applicable. So I will reserve judgement on this game until I can play it again, but I would play it again.

Lifeboats - This is a negotiation game.  People are on board boats heading for shore, but every turn they spring a leak, and voting is done among the players to determine who goes overboard if the leak has to take out a person, and voting also determines which boat moves ahead for the turn.  I didn’t like this game, and not just because I had no one get to shore.  It all seemed a little too random to me. Mall of Horrors is a similar game, but it has some other mechanics that even things out a bit. This one just didn’t work for me, and went on way longer than a game like this needs to.

Gift Trap - This game was played based on the insistent requests of one of the Con’s younger members.  It’s a party style game where a variety of gifts are dealt on to a grid. You then give these gifts out to people (and they to you) and you put out hidden point markers on the gifts, detailing which gifts you would like from most to least. The gifts are revealed and scoring ensues. This was an okay game, and could be fun at a party, especially with people you know fairly well who don’t usually play games (or at least don’t play heavy duty games).  But playing it once is enough for me and I won’t cry if I never play it again.

Kung Fu Fighting – By this time it was about one in the morning. Not wanting the fun to end, a few of us pulled out one last game to end the night. This is a simple player elimination game where you use cinematic kung fu moves to beat up and damage the other players. The more cards (and style) you can play, the better.  But beware being blocked. This is a fun, not to be taken at all seriously game and a perfect way to wrap up the weekend. It can tend to drag, depending on how much people can block, but overall it’s just a good check your brain at the door and open up some whoopass type game.

And so, with that, Beachcon was over.  The next day, cars were packed and people headed home.  All I can say in wrap up is that I’m looking forward to next year.  Who knows, maybe I’ll even win a game next time.

So, woke up at 7:30 on day two to the sound of shouting kids and, even more odd, a voice constantly going “Shhh.” That was the one that really dug into my brain.  I thought I was waking up in a steam room.

Breakfast was silver dollar pancakes which were really tasty. This was followed by the whole troop of about 20 people heading to the beach to play “Slam Your Body Against the Waves” and “Let the Ocean Bitch Slap You”  After about two hours of that fun (and yes, the water was fine once you were in for about two minutes) we headed back.  I walked back without shoes and played the wonderful “Step on Several Cockleburrs” game.  That was my favorite.

Dinner was steaks, chicken and shrimp, grilled by the wonderful Kirk Lugar, along with many delicious side dishes made by the ladies of the house (most notably the talented Stephanie Street, assisted by the others)

But of course the main thing was games.  And here are the games that were played.

Revolution – I just bought this game at Dragoncon because someone recommended it to me.  They made a good call.  This turned out to be a fun, light-hearted game of cube placement and bidding, with an interested bid mechanic.  I would easily play it again. I came in second place.

It’s Alive – This was a cute game about building a Frankenstein monster by buying and bidding for body parts (what a great theme, huh?)  It was fun, but I don’t know that I would play it that often.  Maybe as a filler before something heftier.  I came in last. (And no, that’s not why I wouldn’t play it again.)

Kingsburg -  This was far and away my favorite of the whole weekend.  A great mixture of luck and strategy, this game seemed to cover it all, with interesting mechanics for gathering resources and a neat timing mechanism, with some variables in it to mix things up (we played with the expansion.)  I would gladly play this game several more times to explore the options.  I game in second with 45 points, and the winner had 58

World At War (Eisenbach Gap) – This was a straight out two-player wargame taking place in a fictional world war three scenario where the Russians have invaded Germany.  Well, if I was commanding the Russians, it would have been a short war.  I got my butt handed to me thoroughly by Josh.  Despite that, I would play again. We sort of rushed into it and some of the rules I hadn’t quite grasped, but I would try again with a little more understanding.

Constructionary – Someone pulled this out as a lark, I think. It was basically Pictionary with Lego construction blocks. I think I would take a pass on this one. It was kind of fun from a social, party aspect, but it lasted way too long for what it was. I’ll pass, thanks.

Dicetown – This is the second time I’ve played this game, and I enjoyed it just as much this time.  It’s a poker game with dice and some additional rules for gaining points and a fun Western theme.  This is one of those game I might even be able to get my non-gaming folks interested in playing, and I may buy a copy and try that sometime.  I came in second place.

Chaos in the Old World – Second time playing this.  You play one of the Chaos gods from the world of Warhammer and try to come on top of the other three gods.  This is a great game with lots of theme, a lot of strategic options, and several ways to win (although I think one of them is more prevalent than the others).  Another game I would play anytime it comes on the table. Josh won.

And  with that is was time for bed and dreaming of the next, and final, day of Beachcon.  I will have the report on that soon.

First, let me say that Beachcon is not really a con, it’s just the name I gave to the three-day gaming extravaganza I attended at Ocean Isle Beach this past weekend.  Also attending were five couple who, for various legal reasons, will be identified at The  Streets, The Lloyds, The Lugars, The Calhouns, and The Harmons.  (These are their real names, and none of them are innocent, so there’s no reason to protect them).  All of them also had various numbers of offspring along with them, so the house was loud and lively the whole weekend.

I arrived Friday evening around 5:00 PM, raring to go.  Dinner for the evening was sandwiches of whatever meat you desired, along with all the appropriate condiments.  Once food was consumed (including some homemade oatmeal cookies provided by my SO) the gaming commenced.  Here are the games that commenced, along with the result pertinent to me, and my thoughts about the game. Click on the title and it will take you to more information about the game, in case you’re interested.

Ingenious  - This was an interesting and enjoyable game, sort of a tile-layings/dominoes sort of thing where you match shapes and score according the number of shapes matched and the positioning of said shapes.  I liked it and would play it again pretty quickly. I forgot to note where I came in on the score, but I can tell you I lost.  (We’ll go ahead and get this out of the way right now, I didn’t win any game the whole weekend.  So don’t be looking for the list of what I won.)

Ad Astra  – This is a space exploration game, where you gain points by finding planets and building things on them.  It’s a little more complicated than that, but that’s the basic idea.  I enjoyed this game also and look forward to playing it again, soon.  I actually came in second on this one (out of four players)

Shadow Hunters  – A horror themed game where you take the role of character that is either for the forces of Good (Hunter), Evil (Shadow) or a neutral.  Using various cards, you try to find who are your ememies and then take them out (as least, that was the mission I had to do to win. The other cards may be different.) You lose when you take too many wounds.  I was the second person to go, which put me in 7th place.  This is the kind of game I enjoy because of the theme, so it’s another one I would play again.

Scotland Yard – This is a five players against one kind of game.  One player is Mister X and the other players are Scotland Yard Detectives.  Mister X has hidden movement, except for occasionally popping up, and the other players use logic and deduction to find them. Or, in the case of this particular session, dumb luck. Randal, the person playing Mister X, was just in the wrong place, and a detective stumbled on to him in turn 2, so that was a short game.  And since I was on the detective’s team, I guess I technically won the game.  But I don’t really count it. I own this game and have since it came out, so I obviously enjoy this one and will play it whenever it comes out.

Hey That’s My Fish – This is a tile removal game. You start with two penguins on an ice flow made of hex tiles. When you move, you pick up the tile, which has one, two, or three fish on it.  Once all the tiles are gone or no one can move, you total up your fish. I came in second place on this one.  It’s an okay, quick game (takes like 15 minutes) but nothing real special.  I’d play it if it hit the table, but if there was another game, I’d probably jump over to it.

Chaos Marauders – This is the reprint of the Games Workshop 1987 game in the Warhammer world. You must complete three battle lines of Orcs before your opponents, using cards that you draw.  You also earn points for various “treasure” cards you find. This is another one that I owned for a long time (the 1987 version, that is) but eventually sold on ebay because I never really got to play it any more.  It’s a quick, lighthearted game that is fun if you’re in the right mood.  I’ll play it if everyone wants before getting into something a little heftier (or as a way to finish a late night.

So, we wrapped up Friday night around 2:00 AM.  Then it was time for bed.  But, glutton that I am, I read the rules for Timbuktu before I went to sleep.  (We never got around to playing it, but I’ll know for next time.)

Stay tuned for the report on Day 2, coming soon.

Edna and her boyfriend Arturo picked me up about 2:15 and we went to a cultural district called Coyoacon.  It was filled with an open air market, just like bazaar with trinkets and clothing and doodads and you name it.  And food vendors, lots of food vendors.  It seems that Mexican folks love them some food.  We stopped at one of the eating places and had a disc called pozole, which is a lot like a stew, with corn and a red sauce and lettuce and radishes.  The traditional way is with pork, but I had mine with chicken (or pollo).  It was right tasty, especially with a little spice thrown in.

Then we went and toured the university, which is a huge campus, but nestled among a lot of trees.  They have a great quad where people gather during the weekend to play soccer or just hang out.

The screening was at the university, so we went to the theater and they started up the show.  It was a smaller venue than the other place, but we probably had about 80 people. Most of them seemed to enjoy.  I had several folks come up after and tell me how much they enjoyed it, and a few even wanted a photograph taken with me, so that was kind of cool.

Afterwards, we went to eat at a place called Asedaro and I had the chicken alamba (which means skewers, so named because of the way they cook it) and tried some habanero salsa.  It was hot, but not painfully so.  Was actually pretty good.

Then back to the hotel for sleep and get up the next day to fly back home. As you know, I’m home, so I won’t go any details of the return trip, since there’s nothing exciting to report on that front.  It was an exciting time, I’m glad I went, but I’m glad to be back in Charlotte, too.

Wow, what a day.  Left the hotel about 2PM with my guide Lisette and her boyfriend, Gonzalo.  We drove to a Luche (wrestling) store and I picked up some black wrestling boots, which I will spray paint gold for use in my Rocky Horror costume.  I could get the same boots in the states, but here they were only $60, as opposed to $150, so that was a no-brainer.

Then we drove close to the center of town and walked to the center of town, where there were lots of people and lots of food vendors and trinket sellers and all sorts of avtivities, including some Mayan dancers who were doing a ritual dance. There were also Mayan priests who were burning copal to chase away evil spirits.

We stopped into a shop that sold pulche, which is a drink made from the agave cactus but fermented in a different way so that you don’t get the alcohol, but still get a somewhat pleasant effect.  It’s a thick, almost slimy drink, but with some pineapple in it, it was really good.

Then we walked over to Chinatown, which consists of one block on one street.  Blink and you’ll miss it.

One of the interesting things about the city is you can be walking along a street with the traffic and the noise, people talking, cars honking, and then you’ll go into a side plaza, where no cars are allowed, and everything will go silent.  It’s almost like you’re not even in a city.  It’s very strange, and I can only assume it has something to do with the stone the buildings are made of and the way they’re laid out.

We walked by several museums and government buildings and all sorts of things.  In truth, it was all a little overwhelming. This city is absolutely HUGE.

We stopped in at a little mezcalteria for a light lunch of quesadillas, pescedillas (fish quesadillas) and cerviche.  And some crickets, which have another name that I can’t remember.  It was all quite tasty. Then a shot of mezcal, and time to head for the theater.  The film was showing at the National Cinema.  It was a nice theater, the film looked great on the screen, and the audience seemed to dig it, asking very insightful questions and saying they really enjoyed it.  And it was an interesting experience having to get questions through a translator, but kind of fun.

So after, around 11:30, we went for some dinner (people eat late here).  We were going to a Mexican restaurant, but it was closed, so we ended up at Chili’s, of all places.  But we had nice conversation, I met a good makeup artist named Alfredo, and it was a pleasant time.  Alfredo’s work can be seen at http://www.zombiestudios.com.mx

All in all, a great day.  So now I’m getting ready to head out for my last day in Mexico.  There’s another screening tonight at the university at 6:30.  More to follow tomorrow.