Book Review: Batman and Robin Vol. 1 by G. Morrison et al.

Batman and Robin Volume 1: Batman Reborn written by Grant Morrison and art by Frank Quitely and Philip Tan

Bruce Wayne is gone so Dick Grayson steps up as Batman. Robin's shoes are filled by Damian Wayne, son of Bruce and Talia al Ghul. Damian was raised by his mom, who was part of her father's (Ra's al Ghul) terrorist organization. So he has fighting skills but a more brutal, less moral attitude than previous Robins. They face up against a sinister physician called Professor Pyg, who is transforming people through drugs, lobotomies, and weird masks into drone-like slaves. Pyg is part of a larger organization, the Circus of the Strange, that causes a lot of trouble for the new dynamic duo. But not as much trouble as Jason Todd (another former Robin), who returns to Gotham as Red Hood. Todd's plan is to be a next-level Batman, fighting crime by killing the criminals.

I did a little reading around before starting this since I wanted to try out the Grant Morrison run on Batman. He had a few story arcs before this, but from what I read, this was a fine jumping on point and a little lighter in tone than previous material. Well, the previous stuff must have been very dark. Pyg's M.O. is grim and unsettling, leaving a lot of people horribly scarred and mentally unbalanced. Damian is hot-headed and vicious, not the sort of Robin you would ever imagine if your first exposer to Batman was the 1960s TV show. The plots were okay and the art is nice, but the overall tone was too bleak and miserable for me.

Not recommended.

Movie Review: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) produced, co-written, and co-directed by George Miller

Max (Mel Gibson) is traveling through the desert when he is waylaid by airborne nemesis Jedediah (Bruce Spence). Jedediah takes Max's car and camels (saves on gas!), basically all of his earthly possessions. Max follows on foot and winds up in Bartertown. It's an attempt to recreate civilization in the post-nuclear-holocaust wasteland. The town is organized by Auntie Entity (Tina Turner) but the electricity is provided underground by Master Blaster (Angelo Rossitto and Paul Larsson), a duo consisting of a scientifically-minded small person and a mute, brutal large person. Master likes to flex his influence which causes trouble for Auntie. Auntie makes a deal with Max to eliminate Blaster, which will take the mickey out of Master and let her be the sole ruler of Bartertown. After an epic and creative fight between Max and Blaster in Thunderdome (the place where all disputes are settled), Max is banished, leading the story in a new, surprising, and creative direction.

One of the appeals of the Mad Max series (at least to me) is the bizarre and creative world Miller presents. The people are rough-shod and hard-nosed but still have a lot of individuality. The main characters also have more depth than the typical action picture. Auntie is the villain but very understandable and sympathetic, even if her actions are not often condone-able. Turner gives a good performance, balancing her character's somewhat bloodthirsty side with a bit of pride and ego at trying to reestablish civilization. She's made a hash of it but at least she's trying. Max's journey could have been just an episodic string of action set pieces. Miller crafts a more interesting and connected journey for Max, one that emphasizes his humanity and weaknesses as he brute-forces his way through very difficult situations. He has heroism and tragic self-sacrifice, attributes that raise him above the standard 1980s action heroes. The fight in Thunderdome is very creative and exciting as is the train/car chase at the end of the film.

Recommended, highly for Mad Max fans. This isn't as crazy as The Road Warrior but it does have more plot and interesting characters.

Game Review: The Walking Dead: Surrounded by Button Shy Games

The Walking Dead: Surrounded designed by Jason Tagmire and published by Button Shy Games

The publisher Button Shy Games is famous for its unique design model. All the games are eighteen cards with an instruction booklet and a small wallet. Some games require other materials provided by the player (like tokens or something to write notes or scores on) but typically the whole game is just the small deck of cards. Occasional expansions add more cards or substitute some cards. In The Walking Dead: Surrounded, players build a tableau of eighteen cards alternating locations and character cards, hoping to set up many locations with more humans than zombies adjacent. 

The cards are two-sided with the fronts showing locations and the backs four different characters on each edge.

Sample locations

Some locations have a special rule at the bottom, a person or a walker already there, and/or an end-game scoring symbol (a number or an item in the top right corner). 

The character cards are a mixture of walkers and humans, with the humans divided into leaders (with a star next to their picture) and survivors (with a head and shoulders next to their picture). Some humans have special abilities which will be described below.

Sample characters

To start the game, the cards are shuffled location-side up. The first location is put on the table and the second card is flipped to the character side. One of the zombie sides must be placed next to the location. The game then proceeds with playing cards from the deck, building a checkboard pattern of alternating location and character cards. The player has two choices with the next card on the deck.

First, the top deck card can be played to Explore, using the location and putting it next to one of the characters already in play. After the location is played the next card is flipped and a zombie-side of the card must be placed next to this new location. In some cases, that may not be possible (the location has two or one open sides available). Then the player is free to place the card next to some other location without having to match a zombie to any location. 

The second choice is to flip the top deck card and play it to Occupy an open location. The card can go to any legal spot (i.e. a location with an open side) with no restriction on placing a zombie next to a place. If the card has a Walker on the location side, then it can only be played as an Explore.

Some humans have an Ability, so when they are played to a new location (through either the Occupy action or the zombie-spawn after the Explore action) the special power may be used. Move lets the player move a card at the location to another side (if available). Look lets the player examine both sides of the top or bottom card of the deck. Burn lets the player take any card from the tableau and put it on the top or bottom of the draw deck. The only restriction on Burn is that the map has to remain contiguous, i.e. no cards only adjacent diagonally to other cards.

The game ends when the deck runs out of cards. Then the score is totaled. At each location, subtract the number of zombies from the number of people. If the number is negative, that's a negative score and the location is overrun (some locations have penalties for being overrun--additional negative points!). If there are an equal number of people and zombies, the location is empty. If there are more people, the player scores one point for each survivor. Leaders score a little differently. If there is more than one leader, they eliminate each other. Any leader left scores one point and additional points for any other survivors still at the location. The player can strategically use the Walkers to take out an extra leader or two if necessary. Any location that is surrounded by cards scores if it has a symbol on it (a number or an item). 

A high-scoring final situation

The game says one to four players play cooperatively, but this is basically a solo game because there is only one goal and people would just group-think the play (or an alpha player might take over). Players don't have individual hands, they just play off the top of the deck.

The rules come with special scenarios that add achievements in order to win. For example, Fuel Up requires locations with gas cans to be surrounded in order to win. Each scenario has levels. For Fuel Up, Standard level requires two gas-can locations to be surrounded; hard level requires the two locations not to be overrun (i.e., more humans than zombies); expert level requires the two locations to also have a leader and at least one survivor. Other scenarios involve other resources or limit the number of special actions or require specific leader/follower configurations. My favorite scenario is Betrayer, where the player works against humanity and tries to make a very low score--less than -10 for standard, -15 for hard, or -20 for expert!

The game creates a nice puzzle with a bunch of variations. After I mastered the basic game, I had fun trying to accomplish the various scenarios. The game involves a small amount of "luck of the draw" which can be mitigated by using the abilities to recover or move needed cards. It's similar in feel to Sprawlopolis but a little easier.

The cards use art from the comic books (which I have read), so it's nice for fans to see familiar faces and locations (even when I don't quite remember everyone). The theme is well suited to the game, trying to manage a very difficult situation.

An expansion, Under Siege, adds six new cards with new abilities and bonuses. The mercenary ability lets that character kill all Walkers at the location but doesn't count as a survivor or leader. A new bonus item, Dynamite, is added and must be surrounded or else the player loses a point at the end of the game (surrounding it gains a point, so a two-point swing is involved). The expansion adds some more challenge and variety to an already interesting game.

Recommended, highly for fans of The Walking Dead.

The game and expansion is available from the publisher's web store. 

Book Review: Pensees by Blaise Pascal

Pensees by Blaise Pascal

In addition to being a mathematical wiz, Blaise Pascal also wrote on theology and philosophy. He left a lot of unfinished fragments that he was in the process of organizing into categories or topics. Not every piece found a spot, so this loose collection of writings is available in many editions with many different orderings of the material. Some items are just a sentence or two; others are a page or two.

Despite the unfinished nature of this set of writings, several themes and ideas reoccur. He is well aware of the tension in people between their higher, nobler aspirations and their baser, viler desires. He writes eloquently about needing a balance between the two since we are all in a state of more or less equilibrium between those extremes. As a Christian, he acknowledges our dependence on God to achieve redemption and happiness. Having a genuine faith is challenging because of the pitfalls of our natural inclinations. Pascal engages in some contemporary disputes between the Jesuits and the Jansenists. The text describing his famous wager about the existence of God is also in this book. 

As with any book of aphorisms and short arguments, some are more compelling and interesting than others. I found the haphazard nature a bit off-putting and would have liked something more concrete. The texts do give a lot to think about many times. I wish I had done some highlighting or marking off of passages since I did find many parts harder or less interesting to go through.

Mildly recommended.

Sample quotes:

#121 It is dangerous to explain too clearly to man how like he is to the animals without pointing out his greatness. It is also dangerous to make too much of his greatness without his vileness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both, but it is most valuable to represent both to him.

Man must not be allowed to believe that he is equal either to animals or to angels, nor to be unaware of either, but he must know both. [p.60]

#562: There are only two types of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous. [p.222]

#671 If you want people to think well of you, do not speak well of yourself. [p.242]

#949 It is false piety to preserve peace at the expense of truth. It is also false zeal to preserve truth at the expense of charity. [p.325]

The Short Line Trail, Catonsville, Maryland

The Short Line Trail in Catonsville, Maryland, is a former rail line that ran from Baltimore to Catonsville. It was privately sponsored, so that the investors all had stops along the line. It was completed in 1884 and ran passenger service (mostly commuters) until the early 1900s. It occasionally ran freight and remained in that service until the 1970s. The conversion of the trail started in the late 1990s and is still underway. The current trail is bifurcated by the Baltimore Beltway.

Sign for the "inside the beltway" portion

Some history

The trail

One initiative making the trail even better is the Birds of Paradise Birdhouse Project. Part of the trail runs through a neighborhood called Paradise, thus the name. Local organizations and families have decorated and modified the birdhouses that adorn the trees along the trail.

Will a bird go willingly in the cat's mouth?

Another item for the cat's mouth?

Colorful examples

Maybe this is really a bat house?

The trail runs by the Baltimore National Cemetery. Much like Arlington National Cemetery, it is dedicated to soldiers. Our scout pack and troop both come to put flags out on Memorial Day every year.

Cemetery Overlook

The trail is very inauspicious, with lots of benches and nature to appreciate.

One end of the trail

Doesn't feel like a city trail at all

Lots of bridges branch off into neighborhoods, giving plenty of access.

Over a drainage ditch

A fancy bridge

Bare-bones bridge

A trail with...

A small bridge

The Paradise Avenue crossing

End of the line (for now)

On the outside of the beltway is a continuation of the trail. I parked by the General William J. Witte Armory of the Maryland National Guard to start this part of the Short Line.

Armory no longer in use?

Trail head

Across the street from the Armory, the trail goes left and right. The leftward path leads to downtown Catonsville a few blocks away.

Off to shopping

The other direction is more wooded and leads back toward the other side of the beltway.

The rightward path

Amazingly, some paths out to the neighborhood are nicer than others.

Fancy fox crossing

Less fancy human crossing

The trail leads up a short hill to the intersection of Wade Avenue and Asylum Lane.

A naturalish stairway

The top of the stairs is a long ramp

Asylum Lane sign

Asylum Lane itself

The road looks a little dodgy. It used to lead to the Spring Grove State Hospital (probably called an Asylum back in the day, it was a hospital for the insane). The hospital had a power plant near the rail line. The trains delivered coal. The land has been taken over by the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

End of Asylum Lane

Continuation of the trail

Like many right of ways, this trail has power lines overhead. 

A good spot for power walking

This dead tree was interesting to me

Further along are two gate posts from the Main Gateway Lodge House of the Asylum. The house is no longer there. 

Posts

A nicer bridge

The bridge above leads to a part of the trail that still has railroad tracks!

The rail line still visible

The rails end at Wade Avenue which leads over to the bridge over the beltway. I turned back. On the way I spotted some deer having brunch off on the side.

It's hard to win a staring contest with deer

Back at the armory

Book Review: Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea by M. Mignola et al.

Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea story by Mike Mignola, art and colors by Jesse Lonergan, and letters by Clem Robins

Miss Truesdale is a typical Victorian-era secretary for the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra, a secret society full of occult knowledge and practices. She is put upon in this male-dominated social group but has visions of a previous life millennia before. She was a gladiator in the realm of Hyperborea, the home of the first pre-historic humans who had a very advanced society. The gladiator brings about the eponymous fall of her civilization through a combination of grit, chance, and supernatural influences. 

The story is okay. While the paralleling of the lives is interesting, there's isn't enough depth to the characters to make either version of her memorable. Too much is left out for the collapse of Hyperborea to be really convincing. Also, Truesdale's agency is lacking till the very end of the book. I wanted more than they deliver.

Not recommended.

Movie Review: The Thin Man (1934)

The Thin Man (1934) directed by W. S. Van Dyke from the novel by Dashiell Hammett

Clyde Wynant (Edward Ellis) is an absent-minded inventor who is a bit cantankerous to a lot of people, including his ex-wife and his lab assistant. He dotes on his daughter Dorothy (Maureen O'Sullivan) who is about to get married. Clyde barely remembers her beau but is happy for them both. He sets off for a trip, promising to be home in time for the marriage. He doesn't show up, worrying Dorothy. She runs into an old friend, Nick Charles (William Powell), at a bar. Nick was a detective, and quite good at it, but he left the force when he married Nora (Myrna Loy), who happened to come with a lot of business ventures. They are now a nouveau riche couple who spend most of their time drinking and socializing. Nora wants him to help with the mystery, especially when Wynant's chiseling girlfriend turns up dead and the evidence points to Clyde as the murderer. Nick says he does not want to be a detective again but winds up asking around and figuring out the situation.

The mystery is a convoluted conspiracy involving lawyers, organized crime figures, and some ex-cons that Nick put away years ago. This is a Dashiell Hammett plot, after all. The puzzle is interesting enough but the movie really shines with the witty dialogue (these are Dashiell Hammett characters, after all) and great performances by Powell and Loy. They make a great couple, even when they are on the sauce, and have the sort of quick one-liners a viewer would expect from the best screwball comedies. Nick's casual and carefree attitude belie his quick thinking and handling of difficult situations. Nora makes a great foil to him and their playful relationship is charming. The film is so much fun, it is easy to see how it spawned a string of sequels.

Highly recommended!