The sky grows dark early, the wind howls, the leaves fall unto the cold shadows of the earth. You can feel it can’t you? Just behind you, beyond the door, gently rapping. Again.
This Halloween come see the Post-Meridian Radio Players premiere of Tomes of Terror: Lenore! Three spine-tingling tales of gothic horror to delight and frighten. We return once again to the crypts and galas of Edgar Allan Poe as well as our very special guest E. Nesbit as well.
Think you can handle our trip to tales forbidden and ghastly? You want to see the ancient ways of sounds and screams at our unique Golden Age of Radio setup? That you can handle the fiendish delights of our olden-style concessions and sodas?
Then join us for six performances from Oct. 20th through the 28th at Responsible Grace Church in Somerville’s Davis Square. Tickets are but $15, discounted for seniors and students. We even have a costume contest on the 28th.
So 2016 sure did happen. Just keeping this post down to personal level things rather than going into the assorted craziness of national and international 2016.
I didn't have New Year's resolutions for '16 per se. But I had decided that I specifically wanted a few of my projects to get going again, some which had been on the back burner for years. -I finished Four Chaplains! Woo! We had finished the recording in 2015, but I was worried that it would sit in post-production limbo and would never be done. But instead progress actually went really fast on it and it got to see the light of day. :) -I have a card game I've been working on and it moved forward to some tentative play testing. Not a huge step-forward, but definite progress! -And finally I had some stories that I've wanted to work on, about a series about a 70's Boston reporter. I had three episode ideas and I got some forward movement. One script is in first draft and a second is outlined.
Hopefully I'll get some more work done on the second two projects this year. :)
My personal life went up and down all over 2016. I got to go to Vegas in January, which was great fun! Albiet I spent too much money. Work went a little goofy and I had to call in after I got home from Vegas to see if I still had a job. I did, albiet there had been some shakeups in the company.
My folks came to visit and we went around town including day trips to Salem and Gloucester.
At the end of the Summer I decided it was time to move, after 13 years in my old place. So I did! Woo! And now have my own little studio apartment and the rent that that entails. (blugh!)
Work went through yet another shake-up and while i kept my job about a third of my department did not. Oof. (my workload changed three different times this year)
My theater life stayed busy throughout. I worked on the following shows: Star Trek: Journey to Babel (Arisia and Reprise) Alice in Wonderland Metamorphoses Revenge of the Super Sleuths The Spanish Tragedy Stop Kiss Tomes of Terror: Campfire Tales Slutcracker
As noted previously worked on the studio project Four Chaplains as well as The Arrest of Arsene Lupin.
As always I never get to the movies as often as I like, but I did catch the following: Green Room Under the Shadow (as part of BUFF!) 10 Cloverfield Lane Deadpool Captain America: Civil War Suicide Squad Star Trek: Beyond X-Men: Apocalypse Purge: Election Year At the Brattle I got to see The Sweet Smell of Success and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
I missed them in the theater but got to see the following on DVD: Ghostbusters Lights Out The Conjuring 2 Tales of Halloween Batman Vs. Superman
Oh, and I got to show a bunch of friends Theater of Blood in the Somerville MicroCinema. :)
I signed a lease tonight. So it's real, I'm going to be moving next month to a studio apartment in the Winter Hill area of Somerville. (so literally just down the street away a bit)
First time moving in 13 years and first time I'll be living by myself. So definitely a bit of an adventure.
(for those curious the move is entirely opportunistic. The landlord wants to do some major renovations, followed by a rent increase, so going for my own place now makes sense. No drama with landlord or roommie or anything)
2015 was an up and down year. Some highs, some lows. I managed to make it down to Philadelphia for a few days in between performance weekends and met up with the family, including meeting my niece for the first time.
Survived Snowmeggeden
Several curves sent my way during the Spring, so my travel plans for early 2015 all went down the drain.
Got to game more! Although not as much as I would've liked.
Was terrible at making it to the movies in the theaters. Let's see, I made it to: The Poltergiest remake, It Follows, Jurassic World, Avengers 2, Ant-Man, Cooties and Star Wars. (although I did manage to catch Babadook and We Are Still Here on dvd)
I'm not sure I made it to any of the Festivals this year (although I did support the BUFF as is right and proper) nor was I able to go to the Coolidge Halloween Horror Marathon.
I had a fairly busy 2015 in regards to shows I worked on.
I worked on: Star Trek: Space Seed (Arisia and reprise) The Mousetrap Knight of the Burning Pestle Spring Adventure Spectacular Night of the Super Sleuths Festival@First 8 (consulted) Monster in the Mirror The Importance of Being Earnest Slutcracker
Also got a fair amount of work done on The Four Chaplains studio project.
So yeah, busy busy busy. Hopefully 2016 will be as well, only, y'know, not quite so roller-coastery.
Hmm...The Devil Pills is not the first adventure of Season 4. I also had "Behold the Glory" and "Luck" which I swore I had written entries on...but they're nowhere to be found.
With Oracle Society entries I usually write them up "in my head" before getting them down in writing..so it's possible I had just thought about them and forgot to actually do the journal entry.
Anyway "Behold the Glory" was about a painter who actually managed to paint a picture accurately depicting Heaven...which is one of those "man's little brain can't handle that knowledge" things and basically started a spiritual plague that was wiping out a small town. (had a fantastic seance scene in it too)
"Luck" was a St. Patrick's Day adventure where the party got to fight a pissed-off Leprechaun who was granting cursed wishes. Fairly basic story but the players had fun. Also had a possessed hay thrasher and as many references to the Leprechaun movies as I could cram in.
Might go back and do full entries for these later. But for now wanted to get this written to keep my Season 4 list current.
Catching up on my Oracle Society Posts, I present the Oracle Society's adventure The Devil Pills.
A few weeks prior a new drug for mental illness started a trial run in a couple of Massachusetts health centers. A few days ago suddenly a small set of those patients turned violent, assaulting the doctors and damaging the facilities before escaping. As the patients showed inhuman strength and other frightening abilities the Oracle Society was quietly called in to investigate.
So did a batch of demonic drugs get dispatched? Or is there more to the story...
Inspired by: Leigh Alexander (@leighalexander) "I got a new laptop... Next Pixar movie should be about the old laptops that get put under the bed with their merry stickers still on ;-; "https://twitter.com/leighalexander…" October 5, 2015
Continued:
And in the final act the old machines have linked together to form a beowulf system to defeat the "tragic-backstory-but-still-kinda-evil" NewMachine..but still can't beat it...
AmigaAmy: "Oh no! We don't have the power to defeat it! We need more memory space!"
iMacMaddy: "What will we do??"
AspireAndy: "No choice. No choice at all... Everyone cut your year entries by the first two digits!!"
(all the computers gasp in horror)
AmigaAmy: "But..but..that procedure was banned after we nearly triggered the apocalypse.."
AspireAndy: "We have no choice. End of Line AmigaAmy..." (single digital tear icon goes down screen)
AmigaAmy: "End of Line...."
(all character screens switch one by one to flying toasters as music swells)
I saw the second Avengers last weekend. For the most part I liked it, although I would rank it on the lower end of the assorted Marvel films. Mostly just way too much story/too many characters shoved in. But it also had some nice bits and some great sequences.
With The Stonehenge Massacre Season 3 is a wrap for my horror campaign: The Oracle Society. This batch had 20 episodes/adventures! Woo!
The players have had great fun pointing out that Season 3 took several years real time...but I just like to think of it as Cable Network scheduling. Anyway, here is Season 3:
And that is Season 3! Some really fun adventures there and I got to use a ton of classic monsters and stories. On to Season 4, which will be interesting as the group is getting to high levels and garnering quite the reputation among occult circles (both human and... not)
And The Oracle Society faces off against their Third Season Finale! The Stonehenge Massace.
Who has been funding and running these rituals across the globe? What are there horrible plans? And when one of the Society members can't make it, will the group survive??
silly