Calamari Lunacy

Hola and greetings from the Shallowest Place On Earth.
Yes, La-La-Land, where it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that bling, doo-waa times eight.

Dwelling Hunt SitRep:
The two rooming possibilities I mentioned in a previous entry didn't pan out.
I have 4 additional possibles in the works, one of which I will visit tomorrow.
The other 3 need to get back to me, something of a herculean tasks for certain people in this town, grumble-grumble.
If anyone reading this knows somebody who's looking for a roommate for a place anywhere near Culver City, please let me know!


In other news...

Sony Screening:
Lightning In A Bottle
"A One Night History Of The Blues"
This is a concert film about an incredible blues performance that took place in New York City a while back.
The line-up was amazing, I can't even begin to list them all, just click here and scroll down for the list.
It's hard to encompass such a wide-ranging subject, but this filmed performance certainly takes a stab at it.
It's just wall-to-wall music, and it should be seen in a theater with a good sound system.
If you're at all interested in music, you oughta check it out, even if only on DVD.

The Incredibles:
I have not seen that yet. I tried to see it with the sibling on Sunday but the crowds were... ...Incredible.
Maybe this weekend.

My host, chythar, bought the new-improved crack last Friday, an extremely odd (and addicting) little PS2 game called:
Katamari Damacy
It's very addictive and very loopy (and cheap at $19.99!), but I have successfully resisted its addiction, so far.
I only played it once, and for two rounds. I'm still working on Burnout 3 after all.
And Ace Combat 5 just came out (whimper)...
So anyway, Katamari Damacy, its name rebounds across the land, sometimes as a curse, and sometimes as a cry of pure joy.
(Or something)
It's a game for the sake of gaming (ludus gracia ludi, if you will).
It's happy, wacky, happy, fun, happy, crazy, happy, bizarre, happy!
Okay, in a nutshell, your daddy is King Of The Cosmos. He gets drunk one night and accidentally (or not) busts up all the
stars in the sky. So what does he do? He gives you, his puny little son and prince, a katamari, which is a sticky ball.
You go down to Earth and roll the katamari around, picking up stuff. When you're done, daddy takes the ball of stuff and
makes a star or a constellation or stardust out of it. You start out picking up small stuff, and as the diameter of the
katamari increases, the size of the objects you're able to pick up increases as well. Simple, strange, and fun as hell!
You start out rolling up pushpins and pencils and various small things like that. By the end of the game, you're rolling
up buildings and ships and giant octopi! OMGWTFBBQ!!! Not enough games let you play at a mini-scale. One of my favorite
games on the defunct Atari Jaguar was Club Drive, and one of the levels was somebody's apartment. Everybody's car was
Matchbox-sized and you zipped around this guy's place, driving up ramps to race on tabletops, zooming through the kitchen,
scaring the cat, chasing the mouse, and using a wedge of cheese as a ramp. Watch out for spilt milk! It was fun, dammit!!

Everything in Katamary Damaci is blocky and zany-looking. There are cut-scenes, and they're equally odd. The music will bore
a hole in your skull and take up semi-permanent residence in it. Oh yeah, did I mention that this was a Japanese game?
I haven't seen anything this bizarre since Incredible Crisis on PSX.
So anyway, fun, happy, addictive, Japanese, $20 new, from Namco (yea!), blocky and colorful, Katamari Damacy!



Update: the person whose apartment I'm gonna visit tomorrow just called. We've been e-mailing back and forth all day,
and I couldn't tell from the name whether I was talking to a male or a female. Well, SHE just called.
Ayup, she's a gurl. But wait, there's more!
She's Turkish! And she's Muslim! And she speaks French!
Wow, this could be a rather interesting adventure.
Stay tuned, true believers!