Media Monday: TV Time!

I'm not watching movies fast enough for you lately, and we're getting into a rough month for the theaters. Let's spend the next couple of weeks on quick recaps of some of this year’s TV!

Sneaky Pete s1 - Mostly a fun con man story. Like many shows today, this one tries to bring you that Breaking Bad-esque feeling of the worst thing happening to its characters at the worst time. Unlike most of them, this one actually has Bryan Cranston.

Broadchurch s3 - Mostly worth watching in order to catch up with the town and characters you came to know in the previous, better seasons.

Legion s1 - Fancy visuals, hints of X-Men flavor. A snack to hold over the audience member awaiting a new season of Fargo.

The Good Fight s1 - As The Good Wife drew to a close, the area where it fell the flattest was in lawyering. This show brings back a bunch of the same characters and most importantly, has tons of lawyering! Also, some kind of slightly boring plot revolving around the new POV character.

The Tick s1 - Another Tick, another supporting cast developed to dodge around licensing issues. I thought playing with whether and how crazy Arthur is was a fun device.

Iron Fist s1 - This show might be badly written. Or maybe all of the horrible things that have happened to Danny have emotionally and socially stunted him, leaving him with a– no, it's kind of bad, and Danny gets beat up surprisingly often for being Kun Lun's greatest warrior.

NotArt Home Subscription Service

Hello friend,

I wanted to tell you about a thing that I'm making, because that's the only way that people find out. 

Among the many hobbies I've picked up from Benjamin Franklin over the years, some of my favorites include designing for print, accepting unusual gifts from the French, and writing fantastical stories. That's how I got into tiny publishing. Each book is 8 pages long and suitable for framing. But much MORE suitable for reading! 

And so I've set up a subscription system that allows me to easily collect mailing addresses and pass the expenses directly on to YOU, the potential reader!

www.patreon.com/NotArt is the internet's new hot spot, where everybody is signing up. Well, not everyone, but that's only because so far each issue is limited to 50 copies. Hand numbered, of course, to create a fun challenge if fame or infamy should strike.

If you're like me, you're in Los Angeles, so you could take your chances with running into me somewhere and seeing if I'll just give you each issue. But if you're not the gambling type, this mail-order service is for you. Plus, I've got 15 copies left of issue 1, and you can get one for free with issue 2, which is what you get if you subscribe in August. 

So sign up today, if you want to! It's a chance to get something good in the mail for a change! 

Your frequent correspondant,
-Rob

(You have received this email because: a) you've hit me up at some point in the past about YOUR crazy scheme, b) you have, at some point, cold-called me to sell me a Toyota, or c) I could imagine you being genuinely interested in this project. Anyhow, you can't unsubscribe. It's not a mailing list.)

Set List: Umbrage Edition

Oh hey Jason, I was just thinking about our place in the social ladder.  Do you remember when some out-of-towner would come to the open mic at Meltdown Comics and open with their thoughts on how stupid comic books are? And how that never worked for anyone because most of the comedians aren't that into comics and don't care, and anyone who is into comic books and is here in this comic book shop to do comedy has just been personally attacked for no reason? I thought of that just now when the biggest comic book nerd I know came in here to tell us how about how terrible our show is. Everyone needs someone to pick on I guess.

Anyway, I wouldn't normally promote a show at another theater during our show, but tomorrow night we're doing a Bat Night over at Gangbusters!, which is a comedy show performed in complete darkness, which feels a lot like: This!

(Seriously though, if agree to do a theme show and then you spend your whole set attacking the theme, the thing every other person in the room is participating in, you could just sit at home. What a jackass.)

Set List at the Pack is a completely improvised stand-up show that happens every Thursday night at 10:30, at the Pack Theater in Los Angeles, CA.

Bat Night 6

Gangbusters! presents our special Bat Night show: comedy performed in environmentally-friendly Complete Darkness! Starring Jared Logan, the spooky stories of Max Von Spyder, and so much more!  This week!

Escape Room Reviews: Grandma's Master Plan

Company: 60 Out
Room: Grandma’s Master Plan
Date Played: 8/6/17
Player Count: 4
Success:  Success!

Premise: From the company website, "The story begins when your granny suddenly disappears without notice. No one has a clue where she is, but one day you come across a letter in which your grandmother reveals a secret about her inheritance. All you have to do is to go into her house and find it -- simple, right? We'll see about that."

Immersion: This is an escape unlike any I’ve ever done before. In a lot of games, any failure of the set design to simulate a real-world location makes the game an approximation of the real thing, but I believe Grandma’s to be the first *impressionist* Escape Room that I’ve played. Each of the multiple rooms is stripped down to the vital and memorable bits, yes, but I don’t believe that they are, in the story, literally connected to each other. Each space is probably a different location, and would take place some time after the previous space. They are more like levels of a video game than a literal hour (or in this case, 75 minutes) in your characters’ afternoon.

Highlights: As in every 60Out game, Grandma’s brings sharp set and prop design, an abundance of magical objects (our pet term for objects that are probably outfitted with some kind of sensors to ‘know’ when they’ve been used correctly, as opposed to traditional padlocks), and cleverly designed spaces to explore. Some of the interactions are very neat. One puzzle that I’ve seen used before (in another 60Out game, no less!) worked better here than anywhere else I’ve seen it done. 

Lowlights: Player damage in one area lead us to accidentally skip a puzzle, because a ‘locked’ item no longer closed properly. One prop was especially finicky. The gold shown in the advertisement turns out to be fake. These are very small complaints. 

And Finally:   This is an extra large room, and you are given an extra large amount of time (at an extra large price) to solve it all. Our team didn’t find anything in the room to be especially difficult or mind bending, but there is indeed a lot of it. Which is great! All four of us had plenty to do. 60Out has an offer where one player in your group plays for free on or near their birthday (which our foursome has taken advantage of a bunch this year), and this game was a real birthday treat. Out of 31 games played, this gets a solid #6, and it’s found its way into my heart as my current favorite at any 60Out location. 

How to book this room yourself: Visit https://www.60out.com/los-angeles/rooms/grandmas-masterplan