March? Already? That’s horrifying.
When the first leg of the book tour was concluded, I slept a full thirteen hours in a black sleep which was beyond dreaming. That’s how long it took for my skin to excrete our experience with Jesse Thorn, thereby returning my body to normal function.
The schedule we were given commanded us to be a part of a program entitled “Jordan, Jesse, Go,” and grudgingly we obeyed the document. Already, we were put out; the next episode of Maury promised to feature searing video of cheaters confronted literally in mid-cheat. When we arrived at the address to discover it was someone’s house, I began to mentally embroider grim scenarios. The organism who answered the door had worn a bow tie - and I am not making this up - on purpose. The next forty-five minutes were spent engaged in absolutely the most stultifying kind of nonsense while we awaited the co-host. Recording the show wasn’t much different than the previous hour, except that now there were two people to ignore us. We were steeped in a high PSI stream of cultural detritus, which culminated in an attempt by the hosts to engage seriously the subject of “Waterworld.” I made a note in my iPhone about the experience, which reads:
- Actively fellated by a dog.
This last bit was actually the high point. There was a period during the interview where I began to read the titles of his CDs, one after the other. I honestly didn’t know what else to do. I had nothing to offer these people, and they didn’t give a shit anyway, and all the while a klaxon was sounding: “get out, get out, get out.” They managed to bring out a side of Gabriel that I’ve only seen three or four times in twelve years, and only once directed at me: the implacable judge who becomes (without warning) the unadorned aggressor. You must work diligently to bring out this monster; a feat they managed in record time.
I looked him up online, in an attempt to figure out what his deal was exactly, because actually being around him did nothing to illuminate his character. I stumbled upon a manifesto entitled The New Sincerity, and if you’re wondering what that could possibly mean, let me tell you. The New Sincerity is simply The Old Irony, with better PR.
Outside of our harrowing encounter with this man’s carefully manicured artifice, the trip still resounds in the mind. Energite levels were low the second night, an unfortunate fact for which I apologize, but I’ve never done anything like this before. It feels strange to go to a bunch of different places and do the same thing, the polar opposite of honesty, which the night at Barnes & Noble more or less epitomized. The first night was at a Library, and the last one was at a Comic Shop, which felt more like neutral ground.
The last one in particular, at L.A.‘s Meltdown Comics, almost had a tent revival feel to it. We signed early, spoke, signed again, then spoke again, whatever felt appropriate at the moment. Fascinating questions were offered up, proffered by a region of darkness whose occupants were not entirely visible. I strive, above all else, to be useful to you; occasionally, I am able to manage it.
(CW)TB out.
hypocritical oaf
Two things, or potentially, thangz:
Do you have a second? Because we’ve got a new survey up. We have to refresh this thing every now and then. It is like the Tree of Liberty in that way, I suppose. Except not. Please don’t kill anyone!
Also, more Dragon Age: Awakening (singular): revealing inner monologue in three, two…
(CW)TB
I’ve spent a couple nights with Heavy Rain now and I think it’s really special. If you’re a parent, (especially a Dad) this game can be pretty difficult to play at times. In fact I’m curious if people who don’t have kids will end up getting as much out of it. I don’t know if it’s an 89.85%, or a 9.7 out of 10. What I do know is that after a late night playing it, I sneak into my son’s room and hug him before I go to bed. I think Heavy Rain is probably one of the most important games ever made. Maybe not one of the best, but definitely important.
Thanks for all the great comments about our new Dragon Age comic. I really appreciate all the positive mail. A lot of you have written to let me know that you liked the authentic sword fighting technique in the latest page. That makes me really happy because I actually spent a lot of time researching long sword fighting for the fights in this story. I found a whole series of videos on YouTube from a school that teaches medieval fighting techniques. I had no idea this sort of school existed but now its got me wondering if there is anything like this in Seattle. I’d love to go watch guys fight with swords some time. Anyway I built all the fights in this comic using actual moves I learned about from these videos. It was really fun and I’m glad some of you noticed.
Thanks to everyone who showed up to our book signings last week. I think we had close to 400 people at each of our signings which is just amazing. We’ve never done anything like that before and honestly I’d say it was a pretty brutal test of our anti-anxiety medication. Three cities in three days, each day packed with media interviews, podcast appearances and capped with a book signing.
We did the EA podcast while we were down there and I had a really good time. I’m not sure when it will go up but you can watch the site here if you’re interested. I think it was supposed to be an interview about our new book but it ended up being a really fun conversation about games and the industry.
We also did the JJGO podcast as I’m sure you are aware by now. I’m not sure if Jesse is going to post it or not but if he does I think you’ll see it here. People being late is one of my pet-peeves and so by the time they started recording (an hour after we were scheduled) I had long since slipped into asshole mode. I think it might actually make for a pretty funny podcast if they end up posting it. Jesse said he wanted us to make comics about baseball. He even made up a sample comic naming a bunch of baseball players and cracking inside jokes about their relative prowess on the diamond. The punch-line was that one of them ripped their pants. I just stared at him, was he being funny? Or ironic? Or insulting? I honestly had no clue what was going on. Towards the end I told them that I had left a baby in the car with the windows up and so I really needed to go. Jordan thought the baby would probably be okay but I explained the poor little guy was already sick. He wanted to know why I left a sick baby in my car and I didn’t have a good answer for that.
I would describe the entire ordeal as surreal.
-Gabe out
