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No Labor This Weekend
I’m finding it difficult to get into the right mindset for doing one of these blog posts, as I’ve done almost no work at all this weekend. The only work I’ve done this weekend falls on this blog post and some assorted cleaning around here.
A lot of that has to do with the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) occurring this weekend. A majority of it was held inside the Washington State Convention Center, though I only set foot in there to head to the parking garage so I could get a ride home on Friday night.
It would have been pointless to buy a Friday pass without attending any of the events, but the only thing I was interested in seeing were the concerts that were a part of PAX, and those were held at Benaroya Hall that evening. Having been to Benaroya a few times before for video game-related orchestral concerts and Herbie Hancock (who I also saw perform at the Woodland Park Zoo on August 29th), I knew it was a good venue choice.
There were four bands that played that night – Protomen, Anamanaguchi, Metroid Metal, and Minibosses. I’m familiar with (and enjoy) three of the bands and have friends that play in the latter two, so of course I made it a priority to go see them, especially since a bunch of my friends also went.
Protomen were basically the video game music version of KISS, putting stage presence over musical content. They had the most musicians on stage (usually around 10) and the worst sound quality. Too many cooks spoiling the broth and all that. Anamanaguchi was plagued with a few technical issues, but when they were playing, they were on and it sounded really good. Metroid Metal did extraordinarily well and they get tighter with each and every show. Minibosses did rather well and it was nice to hear some new material from them this time around. The Excitebike hijinks were well-received per usual.
While it had nothing to do with the concert itself, it was rather disappointing to see the hall packed for Protomen and more than half empty by the time Minibosses got on stage. I guess that goes to show that PAX really isn’t in tune with my friends and I. We’re definitely MAGFest types.
The concerts were followed up by some well-needed sleep and a return to my friend Eric’s apartment early Saturday afternoon for more partying over the weekend. Friends of ours had come from the outskirts of Washington, British Columbia, Oregon, and California to see Metroid Metal and Minibosses, so we wanted to make a weekend of it and have a good time.
The adventure started with a trip to Another Castle, which is a quality used game store in Edmonds near the King/Snohomish county border. Every one in our party found something we were looking for and the guy running the store was very knowledgeable about the prices of old games and about old games themselves. The next stop was a Value Village in Edmonds where I found a copy of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon on VHS for 99 cents, though their used game selection was highly lacking.
After that, we decided to get some lunch at Grinders, which is a sandwich shop in Shoreline that serves grinders and has a great selection of premium beers. I got a Gilbano grinder (which is their version of a Philly cheesesteak) and a bomber of Ninkasi’s Tricerahops Double IPA. Both were tremendous and are both my favorite grinder and Ninkasi beer, respectively.
We stopped at yet another thrift store (Deseret Industries) after lunch, and I found an external 3.5” floppy disk drive for $2. It connects through a printer port, but it appears to be in pristine shape and it’s a NEC, so at least it’s made by a company I’m familiar with. I also picked up a Sneaker Pimps CD for the same price, which should be worth some listens as I’ve been exploring the trip-hop style a fair amount as of late.
Once we finally made it back to Eric’s, it was gaming time on a grand scale. We played a wee bit of Rock Band 2, I had a fairly epic victory run on Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix which delayed my dinner, and there was a shirtless Rampart tourney in which I made it into the semi-finals. The cool thing about hitting those last two games is that there was a pretty massive Puzzle Fighter II run during the weekend of PAX in 2006, and we first did shirtless Rampart the 2nd time we all got together to hang out in July of 2005. I was still around 300 pounds at that time, so it was sleeveless Rampart for me back then, but as I’m hovering between 190 and 195 these days, I went ahead and went shirtless.
It gets a little foggy after that, as I remember playing some more massive multi-player games like Devil Dice (four player) and Super Bomberman 3 (five player), but the beer cast a Sleep spell on me and I crashed out before midnight. I guess festivities went on until about 4 AM, but after having a 22 ½ hour day on Friday, I needed more rest. I slept 11 hours that night and I slept 9 last night, so I must have needed to catch up.
Sunday morning consisted of some NES gaming (Iron Tank and Trog! were the highlights), eating pancakes while jamming out to DK Jamz (the Donkey Kong Country soundtrack) that Eric picked up on cassette at Another Castle on Saturday (which will likely lead to me covering Aquatic Ambiance from that game), saying our goodbyes to each other, then getting a ride home.
Since then, I’ve been gaming (a little Xbox 360 and a lot of Dragon Quest IX), relaxing, spending time with Barclay, and taking it easy. I did workout this morning, but it is Monday and that’s arm day. I don’t imagine I’ll have a weekend this fun or mellow for a while, so I’m savoring it and resting up for the busy weekends to come.
Discuss this post at the For the Love of Creativity Forum!
Posted on September 6th, 2010.
External Links
• Anamanaguchi – Anamanaguchi
• Another Castle – Another Castle Video Games!
• Benaroya Hall – Benaroya Hall | Seattle Symphony Orchestra
• Deseret Industries – Deseret Industries
• Devil Dice – Devil Dice – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• DK Jamz – DK Jamz – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Dragon Quest IX – Dragon Quest 9 for the Nintendo DS – Nintendo DS Games
• Grinders – Welcome to Grinders
• Herbie Hancock – Herbie Hancock: The Official Site, www.herbiehancock.com
• Iron Tank – Iron Tank – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• MAGFest – Join Us! | MAGFest – the official site
• Metroid Metal – Metroid Metal – Metal covers of Metroid Goodness – by Stemage
• Minibosses – minibosses
• NEC – NEC Global
• Ninkasi Brewing Company – Welcome to the Ninkasi Brewing Company
• Penny Arcade Expo – PAX 2010
• Protomen – PROTOMEN | ACT 2 – THE FATHER OF DEATH
• Rampart – Rampart (arcade game) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Rock Band 2 – Rock Band 2 // Games // Rock Band
• Sneaker Pimps – sneakerpimps.com
• Super Bomberman 3 – Super Bomberman 3 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix – Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Trog! – Trog! – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Value Village – Value Village – Good deeds. Great deals.
• Xbox 360 – Xbox 360 Consoles & Accessories – Xbox.com – Xbox.com
• ZooTunes – Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle, WA – BECU ZooTunes at Woodland Park Zoo
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