Crucible Design’s game “Space Ninja Cyber Crisis XDO” showed designer Matt Johnson’s role-playing game vision of the future. In fairness, I don’t know how much he felt would actually be coming to pass, and how much was just awesome stuff he gleaned from Anime and Manga. However, what is fascinating is just how much “fantasy” from 1997, when the game was published, is crawling towards reality.
Many, including Avery Brooks up there, want flying cars. I’m not sure why, a car accident is scary enough without crashing and then falling out of the sky. But that must just be me. What a difference 10 years can make Avery, because flying cars are on their way. Of course these aren’t your running errands in the city flying cars, but if we end up with those, these will have been their great, great, grandfathers.
The futures that Avery Brooks and I were hoping for are hovering (literally in the case of potential flying cars) on the horizon. We’re also seeing some of Matt Johnson’s future too. Remember the description from the first part of this? “A game set in a world filled with beautiful cyborgs, cute robots, superfast cyberbikes, powered exoskeletons, giant mechanoids, speed lines, comical pets, strange aliens, maniacal villains and demons with amazing groinal powers…..” Click on those links my friends! Surprisingly, the setting for Space Ninja Cyber Crisis XDO, is slowly evolving into reality.
Regardless of our wishes, the future always arrives. Avery Brooks’ flying cars, my electronic tattoos, and Matt Johnson’s SNCC XDO, were once our fanciful musings and now we’re seeing them newly created, to one day become the primitive ancestors of tomorrow’s common place. This isn’t an endorsement or condemnation of what seems to be blossoming on the horizon, it’s just a realization made while flipping through a role-playing game book.
I have a soft spot for independent role-playing games; particularly ones that once published are very thin in size. I always assume that a thin game book means that the game itself is simple to use. I romantically imagine that this game company, which no one has ever heard of, has managed to take on “big RPG” and build a better system. A simple system. A system that I can understand without needing my other gamer friends to explain it to me, or worse make my character for me. In defense of many well known RPG game systems that are in fact, quite simple; I am, in fact, quite slow on the uptake. Yes, I just said it’s not you; it’s me, to several role-playing game systems, satisfied? Despite never having any intention of running one of these independently released games, and that years ago I dropped out of my longtime gaming group to work on The Magical Buffet and pursue other interests, I just keep buying these damn games.
They almost universally disappoint, and because they’re not cranking thousands of these out from some print company that they have some sort of deal with (Damn you “Big RPG”!) the price points on these experimental purchases are not great. Twenty to thirty dollars is a lot to pay for a book whose contents you will never utilize. (Of course $20 to $30 can be dirt cheap compared to some big name game books.) It seems many of them are straining so hard to be different that they create a frightening Frankenstein monster, generally using the worst ideas from other systems to craft theirs. I guess my advice to any folks out there attempting to design their own role-playing system is that you can never have your game play tested enough. And you know those obnoxious kill joy gamers you put up with for any number of reasons? Definitely have them take a crack at it. Trust me.
With all this in mind, you’ll understand why when I found myself in Rochester, NY for an appointment with a new specialist; my husband and I felt obliged to check out a local game store, Millennium Games. As luck would have it, they were prepping to do an inventory so they had three long tables filled with all kinds of oddities at greatly reduced prices. You guessed it, tons of long forgotten role-playing games and their supplements for only $1 a piece. That’s right, one slim dollar.
That’s where I saw it; a pocket sized book of only 52 pages in length covered in dust; Space Ninja Cyber Crisis XDO. “A game set in a world filled with beautiful cyborgs, cute robots, superfast cyberbikes, powered exoskeletons, giant mechanoids, speed lines, comical pets, strange aliens, maniacal villains and demons with amazing groinal powers…..” And so I bought it, for one dollar.
Guess what folks? It’s actually a very simple game! I was shocked to find that I understood character creation and game play rather easily, and that there were no truly mind numbingly bizarre mechanics. Some recommended reading and viewing to get into the spirit of the game are: Ghost in the Shell, Blade Runner, Akira, AD Police, and other things along that vein. Also, they suggested other role-playing games that the designers felt had something valid to bring to a campaign of their game Space Ninja Cyber Crisis XDO; like Over the Edge, Feng Shui, and Heretics. I’m not sure if I’ve ever encountered a role-playing game that suggested other RPGs, from other companies, as sources of inspiration. The longer I thumbed through this slender little game book, the more smitten I became with Crucible Design, the guys responsible for SNCC XDO. (Nice way to shorten the huge title, right?)
Turns out this simple role-playing send up of futuristic Anime/Manga was put together in Northern Ireland! The original retail for the book at Millennium Games was $13.99. The art for the book, which is quite good for a random RPG, was done by Paul J. Holden in Belfast. The concept and design came from Matt Johnson, presumably from Northern Ireland, home to Crucible Design. I have in my possession a crazy little independent game that traveled quite a distance to end up on a clearance table in Rochester, NY.
As I mulled over the setting I realized that the awesome high tech future they were discussing was 2019, a mere 9 years away. Obviously with this being a game inspired by Anime/Manga, they created a hyper extreme future, but I couldn’t help but wonder when this game was published.
1997, 13 years ago.
I suddenly found myself wondering, is the future what Matt Johnson thought it would be? What were his hopes as he decided what an amped up Anime/Manga future would look like? Does he find himself asking, where are the flying cars?
Join me on Thursday for part two of this story as I examine exactly where our future is in relationship to SNCC XDO.
The topic of the day is the Frank’s Box. This is a device that goes by many names: phone to the dead, shack hack, etc. I’d like to clarify that what I write is my opinion. If you don’t agree with me that is your right. Also, if you have your own theories we would love to hear them.
Let me begin by going over the need for such a device. As a paranormal investigator, we collect hours upon hours of possible evidence on every investigation. Approximately 90% of what we catch is audio responses, such as noises or an answer to a question that was not heard during the time of the recording.
Why this happens remains unexplained. One theory is that spirits communicate in a frequency that is either higher or lower than the frequency that we can hear with our ears. We use software to try and “see” what frequency our recordings are in. We use several tools to catch possible EVPs (electronic voice phenomenon). Our most basic tool is a simple digital recorder. We have ways to modify these recorders to help catch recordings, which we will explain in more depth in future articles.
The Frank’s Box is a device created by Frank Sumption and it is basically a broken radio. When you hit the scan button on a radio, it stops at the next strongest station. By modifying the radio to not stop scanning, you have yourself a Frank’s box. Here is the problem that I have with the Frank’s box; it was not designed to catch EVPs from spirits. It was designed to communicate with aliens. You read that correctly…aliens. According to email correspondence that has been published on the web, to this day Frank continues to communicate with aliens and other beings. Now his words have been twisted and that is where his tool has been misused.
Some investigation groups base their whole investigation on this device. We have experimented with this tool on quite a few investigations and we feel that there were some possibilities to his theory. However, these possibilities are open to a lot of interpretation. If you listen to a scanning radio long enough you are going to hear “Yes” and “No” many times, so asking those types of questions are useless. If you listen to it long enough you are also going to hear a lot of other possible replies. Does that mean that spirits are manipulating these recordings? Or are aliens? Chances are not very likely. More often than not it is the simple act of randomness. If you listen to enough records backwards you are going to eventually hear the devil talking to you. After our experiments with the device we found evidence of something possibly repeating names and even colors. After carefully reviewing the audio, you had to really use your imagination to hear the correct response. Due to matrixing, your brain hears the response that you are looking for. If you wanted to hear the word “yellow”, anything close would satisfy your ears.
Our team is based on science and we experiment with our own theories as well as those from other groups. After experimenting with the Frank’s Box, we feel that it does not stand up to scientific scrutiny.
About the Authors: Brian Leighton and Job Mesick are members of the Northern New York Paranormal Research Society’s Tech Council. If you have questions or comments you can visit him and the rest of the NNYPRS group at www.nnyprs.com.
Take note publishers, name dropping works. Months ago I received a review copy of “The Temple of High Magic: Hermetic Initiations in the Western Mystery Tradition” by Ina Custers-van Bergen from Destiny Books. It had a not entirely exciting cover and was authored by a woman I had never heard of. However, I noticed the forward was by Gareth Knight and that the author was initiated by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki so I knew that this book had to be something special. And boy howdy was I right.
Obviously I’m no expert on the Western Esoteric traditions, because let’s face it, I’m not an expert on anything, but I will dare say that this is the best introduction to the subject matter I’ve ever seen, or possibly that’s ever been published. My introduction to the subject matter was the book “Magick for Beginners” by J.H. Brennen, which I still highly recommend to anyone looking for a tiny taste of Western Occult practices. In writing him a letter (yes, I liked the book so much that I wrote the author), he suggested looking at Dion Fortune and Israel Regardie. Fortune and Regardie are both respected pillars of the ceremonial magic community but their works are dense and difficult for a beginner to wrap their brains around, or at least for this beginner they are. If only “The Temple of High Magic” had been available then!
Bergen’s book thoroughly answers the question, “What are the Western Esoteric traditions all about?” Seriously, if some random person I met on the street that I had never seen before in my life went, “Hey stranger I’ve never seen before, what is all this Western Occult/Mystery stuff like?”, I would say not a word and put “The Temple of High Magic” in their hands.
This book is only 383 pages including index, bibliography, glossary, and table of correspondences, and yet it answers any question you could possibly think of as a beginner. Better still, this book despite being translated from Dutch speaks clearly and goes light on jargon. Bergin covers the roots that feed into the current practice of Mystery Traditions today, explains the significance of temples, tools, and robes, covers Tree of Life basics, Chakras, features loads of exercises and rituals, and more, more, more!
This is the book I should have read before attempting to tackle Regardie’s works, or slowly suss out Fortune, and it is definitely a book for someone looking to learn about these traditions but isn’t looking to necessarily actively participate in them. In other words, this is probably the only book a generalist like me would ever need. That said, this book could easily be the springboard for someone with some interest in the topic to become someone looking to actively begin serious study and practice. I guess what I’m trying to say is, buy this book and then buy a second copy to give to anyone you know with even a passing interest in the Western Esoteric Traditions.
So I’ve collected a bunch of stuff together in the form of my commentary on various geeky news stories, reviews, or whatnot. One paragraph of my thoughts, plus a link or two related to it.
This will not always be everything that happened in the month of Geek Relevance. I don’t have the staff for that. Heck, I barely have enough staff to get me coffee! But I promise at least one or two things you haven’t heard about before, because they’re so damned obscure.
Here’s July 2010 in Geekery:
RPG Geek Squee
Monte Cook did a full-on adventure module! If you aren’t familiar with who Monte Cook is, he was one of three people responsible for re-engineering D&D in 1998, D&D 3.0. I would say that D&D 3.0 was probably one of the most successful RPG systems ever created. It combined modern sensibilities with a lot of the flavor of Old School D&D. So he’s one of those folks in the Geek Hall of Fame.
But it doesn’t slice bread (app pending)
Look, everyone who knows me will tell you, I’m a huge Apple fanboy. I got that going on all over the place. But those of you old enough to remember the Jetsons will recall scifi’s promise of the video phone. It was going to be wall-sized or toaster-sized (like the “real” telephones of 1974). It was going to revolutionize everything and everyone was going to have one.
Well, Apple’s iPhone 4 does that in a device that fits in your HAND. Video calls. In your HAND.
So, I find it infinitely amusing that folks have made an application for the iPhone 4 that turns it into a flashlight. A real, serious flashlight that uses the iPhone 4’s LED flash (designed for flash photography).
Now THAT’s Building a Castle
This team has been working on building a castle in France using only traditional methods (as they can figure them out via archaeology and reading historical texts). They’ve been going since 1998.
Plato’s Hidden Messages
There’s nothing cooler than discovering deeper meaning, and when that comes from one of the founders of “Western Civilization” (such as it is), you just have to step back and say “Whoa!”. A scholar in Britain has discovered hidden messages coded in Plato’s writings. Stuff he couldn’t say openly for fear of reprisal.
The SciFi Airshow
So, it’s like an air show, only all the “planes” are scifi space vehicles. (It’s not real, though.)
Gore Factor Five!
I know, Dragon Age: Origins has been out, like, forever. The review I’m linking to is even months old. But it’s so damn funny, who cares?!
Best. Map. Ever..
Or even, all maps ever made of the earth, the stars and the universe in general, smushed together. Found out about this amazing map by seeing it on TED, and if you don’t know about the TED talks, I’m sorry. You’re about to have a lot of your free time sucked away by amazing speakers and mind-blowing technology.
Sinbad, Totally Not a Remake
I don’t really know what to make of this preview. It’s got Patrick Stewart voice over, but it looks like someone said “hey, what if Bollywood made a Sindbad movie in the 70’s?”. Hell, Bollywood probably DID make some Sinbad movies in the 70’s. To Wikipedia! No! They did make a TV series about Sindbad though.
It’ll Totally Be a Hit With the Geeks
And while I’m on the subject of wack-ass previews, here’s Sucker Punch. This movie will either be:
1. The greatest movie ever made.
2. The worst movie ever made.
I don’t really see any middle ground for it. On the surface, it’s got what every hetero male (or lesbian female) movie-going geek wants to see: chicks with swords, kicking robot samurai ass. It’s got burlesque, and dragons breathing fire. It’s got airplane dogfights, zepplins, machine guns, gangsters, and a 1950’s insane asylum. And since it’s from the director of 300 and Watchmen, it looks like rock-and-roll.
Tron
You saw the trailer, right? New movie, same universe. Not a remake, but a … sequel? Yeah, looks good.
About John: John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).
Geek Credentials: RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee. Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993 Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983 His Blog:http://glenandtyler.blogspot.com
Sunday’s interview with Peggy Rubin was a lot of fun, wasn’t it? Interested in checking out her book “To Be and How to Be: Transforming Your Life through Sacred Theatre”? Well, break out your ink and quills because have I got news for you! As per usual, Quest Books thinks readers of The Magical Buffet are the coolest kids in town, and once again, they are willing to put some product on the line to prove it! In other words, it’s time for another Quest Books give away!
To celebrate Peggy Rubin’s book, and her affection for Shakespeare, we’re going to have a contest of poetic proportions! You guessed it, we’re going with sonnets! Write a sonnet for your chance to win “To Be and How to Be”!
Here’s the deal:
Step One: Write a sonnet that shares something about your life. (The proper rhyme scheme of the English sonnet is: a b a b / c d c d / e f e f / g g. This means that the first and third lines rhyme with one another, the second and fourth lines rhyme with one another, and so on. An English sonnet is composed of 14 lines, which are broken into 4 stanzas, as the slashes indicate. Each line is composed of 9 to 11 syllables, with 10 syllables being the standard. Technically Shakespearean sonnets are more exacting than this, but come on, I’m no Shakespeare!)
Step Two: Email your sonnet to admin@themagicalbuffet.com with the word SONNET as the subject line. Include your name and address so if you win we know where to mail your prize. Also, specify what name you would like displayed with your sonnet if it is published on The Magical Buffet.
Step Three: Sit back and wait. We’ll be accepting sonnets up to August 31, 2010.
A Sonnet for Potential Entrants by Rebecca (with an assist from Jim)
In a gesture that hopes to inspire you
I decided to jot down a sonnet
To show it’s a thing anyone can do
So stop stalling already! Get on it!
It need not end happ’ly ever after
But with it I hope that you’ll share your life
Be it joyful, overflowing with laughter
Or be sorrowful riddled with strife
Now I’m not claiming it to be easy
I’ve scribbled this down more as a joke
Please try not be vulgar or sleazy,
Seeing that as more challenge than yoke
Just try your best ’cause we’re all friends here
It’ll be better than this so have no fear
You can find more details about writing an English sonnet at eHow.
1. Before we launch into discussing the details of your book “To Be and How to Be: Transforming Your Life through Sacred Theatre”, can you first explain to my readers the origins of sacred theatre?
The theatre began as an act to honor and celebrate the ancient gods. For the most part we practitioners of the theatre have forgotten; I know I had. But when my mentor, teacher and friend Jean Houston signed me up to do a presentation on Sacred Theatre at a conference in The Netherlands on Sacred Matter, I remembered the theatre’s original purpose — to celebrate the gods and to celebrate life.
2. How did that original idea of sacred theatre transform into the work you’re doing now?
For that original conference, I considered nine aspects of traditional theatre, and saw how they could be utilized and addressed to reframe human life in terms of a play, or a work of performance art in progress. Those aspects became the nine Powers of Sacred Theatre, and I began to look at individual life in terms of those powers, and began to recognize that as individuals embraced and engaged these powers, they seemed to appreciate their lives more deeply and increase their awareness of creativity and joy, as well as more practical things such as increasing presentation and speaking skills.
3. Could you outline for my readers the way their lives mirror theatre?
Perhaps it is more accurate to say that the theatre mirrors their lives, though since I am so focused on theatre and love it so deeply, one of my friends is fond of saying that for me, rather than theatre providing a metaphor for life, life provides a metaphor for theatre. People enact their lives as stories; they play many different characters in their own lives as well as in the lives of others; they perform on a stage (of the world); they have many different kinds of audiences; they do all this through vocal and physical expression (as actors do); they confront conflict; everything is alive and happening in this precious moment of now (exactly as in the theatre).
4. Your book helps and encourages us to view our lives from the perspective of a theatrical performance of sorts. Are you familiar with the film “Stranger than Fiction”? Could we use the example of Dustin Hoffman’s character Professor Jules Hilbert encouraging Will Ferrell’s character Harold Crick to figure out what kind of story he’s living in as being similar to the ideas expressed in your book?
I’m so sorry, I don’t know the film. And I will be looking for it and seeing it as soon as possible.
5. Can you tell my readers about The Center for Sacred Theatre and the work you do there?
This is where I offer workshops in the Powers of Sacred Theatre, for people who want to look at their lives from this context, and who feel a desire to experience their lives as holy.
6. Although not related to your book “To Be and How to Be”, I think many of my readers would love to hear about your “Book of the Lady Project”. Do you mind sharing some information about that with my readers?
Thank you for asking about this. It’s a project dear to my heart, though it went into abeyance while I completed the book about the Powers. It began with a voice in my head during a Mass at Glenstal Abbey in Ireland; this inner voice said “It’s time to begin compiling a goddess Bible.” As I worked with what this might mean, further inner instructions came, acknowledging that it must never be part of a religion, that it must be open ended, that it must never in anyway deny or put down any form of the male divinity. But that “for our daughter’s sakes,” we needed to open our minds and creative writing and artistry skills to the feminine face of God.
We have worked with this assignment during several years of Sacred Theatre workshops, focusing on nine stages of a woman’s life as a framework for defining the words, liturgies, hymns, praise songs, stories of the sacred feminine to illumine and guide each those stages.
7. Obviously I can’t have a huge Shakespeare fan here and not ask the question. What is your favorite Shakespeare play, and why?
I think my all time forever favorite has to be Hamlet, though when I am studying or watching King Lear, difficult as that play is, it becomes my favorite. And I love Twelfth Night, as the most tender and most perfect comedy.
8. And again, I just can’t resist. What do you feel was the best film version of a Shakespeare play?
I was fascinated with the BBC broadcasts some years ago — of all the plays. They gave me a new respect for the fierce intimacy that is possible when the camera is so near — the audience is literally in your face. I really like Kenneth Branagh’s work, especially Much Ado About Nothing. And Olivier’s Othello was a great achievement.
9. A quick glance at your web site shows you are a very busy lady. What upcoming projects should my readers keep an eye out for?
More work on the Book of the Lady, with a web site that makes it possible for others to contribute their stories, poems, experiences.
10. Parting shot! Ask us here at the Buffet any one question.
If you could change one thing for the better in the whole world, what would it be?
I would make everyone watch the movie “Stranger than Fiction”! Thanks to you Peggy, I am now one person closer to my goal!
Thank you for these amazing and thought-provoking questions, and for the care and attentiveness you show the book.
About Peggy Rubin: Peggy (Margaret) Rubin is Founding Director of the Center for Sacred Theatre in Ashland, Oregon. Primary activities of the Center include the creation of workshops in Living Life as Sacred Theatre, most often within the context of studies of the Divine Feminine. Peggy has led Sacred Theatre workshops in many locations in the United States, as well as Australia, New Zealand and The Netherlands.
Peggy is also the principal teaching associate of Jean Houston, Ph.D., in Dr. Houston’s worldwide multicultural transformational work and in her schools of spiritual studies. For the past eight years, she has also been a member of the core faculty of the School for Social Artistry, an intensive leadership training program. Working with Jean Houston, Peggy Rubin has presented classes, workshops and trainings throughout the United States, and in Australia, New Zealand, England, Ireland, Sweden, Greece, Egypt, The Netherlands, India, West Africa, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Jamaica, and on behalf of the United Nations Development Programme, in Albania, St. Lucia, Barbados, The Philippines, Kenya, and most recently the Republic of Maldives.
Before joining Dr. Houston’s staff in 1987, Peggy was for 14 years the Public Information and Education Director for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, one of the largest classical repertory companies in the United States. Before that she was a bank executive for First Western Bank in Los Angeles. She has also been a teacher of English, a freelance writer and editor, an actor and director.
She holds a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Texas, and has taken courses, primarily in Economics, at the University of California at Los Angeles, and in Environmental Studies at Southern Oregon University.
She has studied extensively with Elaine De Beauport, Ph.D., founder of the Mead Institute, leading teacher of humanistic and behavioral applications of current brain/mind research; and with William Emerson, Ph.D., pioneer in the field of pre and peri-natal psychology, and its importance in understanding human development.
Has this month been a pretty non-event month at The Magical Buffet or what? It looks like this month will only have 8 articles, quite the drop from the 13 articles that were published in May and June of this year. So what gives?
At the beginning of this month I intentionally ran myself into the ground trying to stay busy and not stress too much about my appointment with a specialist that took place on July 6th. It seemed like a good idea at the time. However, I came back to a household that had been neglected for over a week and a new too busy to breathe season at my office job. (A lady has got to pay the bills, ya’ know.) Add in the few mishaps with starting the beginning of a new treatment, and well, you end up with a lackluster Buffet month.
I had considered not saying anything and hope that no one would notice, but the fact is, I know I’ve been underperforming as of late and I felt I owed each and every reader a personal apology for kind of sucking out. Life happens, but still, I’m sorry folks.
Hopefully me, and The Buffet, will start getting back up to speed again, and I’m getting a little help from some friends.
When I switched The Magical Buffet over from its monthly spirituality focused format to this new whatever floats my boat blog format you guys stuck by me and that change. And let’s face it, we’ve been having some good times; The Colbert Healthcare Challenge, 10 Questions with Steve Kenson, The Quest for Fire: Flaming Mojitos in Our Time, and more. I’ve really enjoyed getting to share more of myself and my interests with you. I hope that from time to time I’ve made you consider something in a different way or perhaps introduced you to something entirely new. That said, there are two things I really wanted to do with this new format that haven’t really come to fruition.
The first thing is, that being a geek, I wanted to share lots of ideas and news from the geekier side of my life such as RPGs, comics, geek-like (or geek adjacent) movies and television, websites, and more. Despite a strong start with my interview with Steve Kenson and a few other assorted “geek” articles I find overall the site to be lacking. All the while, my friend John Sanders has been emailing his friends and I links to articles about all kinds of geeky news, products, or websites. One day I realized, he keeps tabs on many of the geeky things I would want to share with my readers, so I asked him if he would be willing to do that very thing, and he agreed. Readers might not be familiar with John, but they are familiar with a lot of his work. Many of the articles that I publish first get checked over by John utilizing his education in technical writing to my benefit. John works in tech support, which does nothing but elevate his geek cred. He’s currently working on his first novel which is fiction, but I still associate with him anyway. He will be a regular contributor with his own feature, “The Geek Month in Review”.
The other thing I wanted to make sure happened when I switched formats was that I would continue to provide articles of interest for all the wonderful Wiccan, Pagans, and Witches who supported The Magical Buffet from day one. Despite my best intentions, it’s safe to say that the site is lacking. Then one day I was reading a newsletter from Handfasting.org, run by my friend Shira Tarantino (who first appeared on The Magical Buffet in 2007 and again in 2009), and I found myself thinking, man, she’s good. Her articles are interesting, well researched, and generally have a taste of her great sense of humor. I found myself wondering how to get her on my website again. Then it hit me. Just like my friend John and his “Geek Month in Review”, maybe she would be willing to do a “Witch Month in Review” feature for The Magical Buffet. In what I feel is an extraordinary stroke of luck, she agreed. Since Shira agreed she has been sending me emails filled with wonderful ideas and boundless enthusiasm. I know that if you’re looking for news from a Pagan perspective there are great websites like The Wild Hunt (my personal favorite), and it’s associated Pagan Newswire Collective, and Witchvox but my goal here at The Magical Buffet is to offer loads of perspectives and introduce communities to other communities. The Wiccan that subscribes to The Magical Buffet reads the Steve Kenson interview, and my gaming buddies read The Wiccan Rede Project essays. This is a chance to hopefully more thoroughly introduce and integrate diverse communities, and I can think of no better emissary than Shira.
So not one, but TWO new features. See, I may not have been producing much, but I have been thinking about all of you. Now just like I fell behind, both of these guys have their own lives of family, friends, and work, so maybe we won’t see them every month (although I hope we do). I’m hoping that their contributions will make The Magical Buffet both more fun and more informative than it has been in the past. It seems like a good place to start. Both features will debut in August.
Psssst! I know, I know, I’m always about the “A Magical Buffet of Authors” event at the Barnes and Noble in Saratoga Springs, NY on September 11, 2010, but I just can’t resist mentioning it again. Remember, you learned about it here. You’ve joined the event on Facebook and MySpace, right? Good work gang! I’ll be able to thank you in person in September!
Frequent Buffet readers know that I am an Anthony Bourdain fan. Bourdain is best known for his book that put him on the map, “Kitchen Confidential” (which I’ve still never read!), and his television show “No Reservations” (which I watch all the time). Not too long ago I got to have a brief meeting with him at an event where I had him autograph the article I wrote about pho. I regularly read his blog on the Travel Channel website for further insights from his travels and for often comical posts about other odd occurrences in his life. He also wrote a fantastic post about the passing of Harvey Pekar that I can’t help but share.
A few weeks back I saw a post on Bourdain’s blog titled “In it, to Win It”, which brought to my attention that Bourdain’s publisher, HarperCollins, is holding a contest to be featured in the paperback edition of Bourdain’s book “Medium Raw” when it releases. (By the way, “Medium Raw” is my new favorite Bourdain book. I recommend it highly.) Not only will the winner get published, but they also win $10,000!
The first thing I did was email the link over to my friend Greg from What Greg Eats. Being a writer and a foodie, I knew he would have some thoughts on what to write to answer the contest question of, “What does it mean to cook food well?” And indeed he did, a few days later he submitted “Timeless – My Father’s Kitchen”. In an odd coincidence, although talking about entirely different ideas, my father also came into play when I set out to write my essay.
Whereas Greg’s essay is a sentimental tribute to his father’s cooking, mine focused on the myths and misconceptions on cooking well that I started to learn about when my father developed heart disease. I came up with something honest that I believe in greatly when it comes to food. Oddly, I guess my essay could also be considered a tribute to my father.
Here’s the deal folks, the preliminary round of the contest will be judged on the following criteria: creativity (30%), originality (30%), writing style (30%), and (10%) will be determined by the voting of visitors to the contest website. Based on these criteria, ten finalists will be selected. The ten finalist selections will be read by Anthony Bourdain, who will select one essay as the final contest winner. It seems highly unlikely that I’ll win, but I’m still excited to participate. It’s nice that voting has such a small percentage, so it doesn’t turn into a clicking contest as opposed to a writing contest. Of course, that said, I’d love it if you guys took a moment to read my essay here. If you like it, please take a moment to vote for it. You can vote once a day, so if you’re feeling charitable you can go back and vote for me again tomorrow, or you can vote for my friend Greg’s great essay, or a combination of both! Also, if any other Buffet readers enter the contest, definitely leave the link to your essay in the comments section! I’d love to support my readers!
If I ever decided to write an autobiography or some sort of memoir I always imagined I would title it, “Whatever You Do, Don’t Ask about Religion or Politics”. It’s an idea that frightens me and motivates me. It’s the seed of apprehension that somehow managed to grow into The Magical Buffet.
Where does this common piece of social wisdom come from? I don’t recall any time in my life when my parents, friends, educators, or anyone else, actually told me this cultural truism. Yet, I knew it wasn’t supposed to be done. Somehow you, me, everyone, be they friend or co-worker, know that it just isn’t done. More so now, in this era of risk management political correctness, will you intrinsically be trained by society to absolutely, under no circumstances, ask anyone about their religion or their politics. It’s a good way to lose friends and gain enemies. I can’t help but feel that this generates a climate of fear in our society. How are we supposed to become a global community and not engage in conversation about the things that could potentially divide us the most? The simple answer is, we won’t.
Here’s another societal truism, people fear what they don’t understand, and fear becomes hate, and the next thing you know I’ll start quoting “Star Wars”. It’s true of course, people fear what they don’t understand. How else is the human animal meant to survive? I don’t understand those crackling lights ripping the sky apart, I’m going to hide in my cave. Right on my primitive brother from another mother, you get your prehistoric butt into that cave and preserve the human species! Emotions like fear and hate, come as readily to us as love. Only humans can experience love or hate in precisely equal measure. It’s what we do with those most potent emotions that define an individual, their community, and their society. It’s taken the better part of my adult life to not automatically default to hate when presented with an intolerable situation. At sixteen I hated Tipper Gore and her cadre of censorship cronies. That’s right, I said it, I hated Tipper Gore. (It’s as if I hear millions of liberals cry out, and then suddenly be silenced. See, more “Star Wars”!) I even wrote a terrible, horrible, utterly embarrassing poem forever preserving my righteous hate for her that was published in my high school newspaper (Go Bombers!). How dumb was I then? So painfully naive. I was not worthy to have anyone read my writing, I was not entitled to think I could educate others. It was with time and experience that I learned hate just isn’t an option. Hate doesn’t solve problems, hate creates problems. (And if you ever watch the television show “Burn Notice” you know that guns make you stupid, but duct tape makes you smart.)
Now that I’ve detailed two of our societies’ greatest truths: that we are not to discuss religion or politics despite their importance in many people’s lives, and that we fear what we don’t understand and that fear becomes hate, I’m here to offer a pretty obvious solution.
Fuck ’em. People who somehow send you the signal that you are never to discuss religion and politics can bite me.
That’s right folks, for the first time ever, I’ve dropped the f bomb in writing. (Those who know me personally are probably surprised it took this long!) I don’t mean to offend you, but to instead in the most graphic way possible, express my utter distaste for some of the worst ideas ever. Ever.
We know that people fear what they don’t understand and that fear can easily become hatred. For better or worse, this is coded in our DNA. No matter how loving or how enlightened an individual is, the potential for fear of the unknown other is always an option. So how about this idea, we work to make it so there is less to fear? If fear can potentially become hate, and hate is bad, why not attempt to lessen the amount of fear in the world?
But Rebecca, how on earth are we going to do that? As a start, I highly recommend asking people about their religious and political beliefs. But it makes things awkward, and potentially uncomfortable. You know what I say to that? Get over it. In my experience, if you’re polite, if you’re respectful, and if you’re honest about your lack of understanding, people will genuinely surprise you. You will find that yes, there are things you disagree on, but often you’ll also find that there are things you can agree on. (And before you say that is a cliché’, I’d like to state, for the record, that I have personally found common ground with Conservatives, Republicans, Evangelical Christians, and just about any other group you think I wouldn’t.) You learn about other perspectives, you learn about other points of view. You may not like them, you may not share the same beliefs as them, but you’ll also gain understanding about them. Those things that cause fear, those things that become hate, they become merely a differing view, from another person. Just another person.
Take notice all of you who are profiting from fear, anger, and hate. We’re not buying what you are selling anymore. I’m tired of being force fed outrage on a daily basis, and not for the “good fight”, not for “our children’s future”, but to turn a quarterly profit. We are ready to learn. We are ready to discuss. We are ready to get out there and find out for ourselves what is going on. We’re going to talk about religion and politics, and you guys are going to go find a new job.
The futures that Avery Brooks and I were hoping for are hovering (literally in the case of potential flying cars) on the horizon. We’re also seeing some of Matt Johnson’s future too. Remember the description from the first part of this? “A game set in a world filled with beautiful cyborgs, cute robots, superfast cyberbikes, powered exoskeletons, giant mechanoids, speed lines, comical pets, strange aliens, maniacal villains and demons with amazing groinal powers…..” Click on those links my friends! Surprisingly, the setting for Space Ninja Cyber Crisis XDO, is slowly evolving into reality.
