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August 1998 |
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06
August 1998 |
Well, I've survived Tour SiN Europa `98 and the
jetlag is starting to slip away. I had an incredible time in one of my newest 'favorite
spots' called Dublin, Ireland. You'll not find a friendlier people or a more beautiful
city. It could be the influence of distance Irish genes talking, but I highly recommend
that everyone take this place if they get the chance.
I was going to make this a one-entry finger, but the
rough draft is already three pages long. So we'll do this sections. It's all worthy
reading, some rivaling even Dick's antics to include "Elexis and The Flustered Bag
Piper", "The 'Foreign Shits!' Girl", and finally, "A Night at Madam
Jo-Jo's".
The main point to all this is to give ActiVision a high
"Hat's off!" for an incredible pre-launching. Every want was fulfilled and every
detail was attended. A special thanks goes to all the people, from the lofty Bob 'Tomorrow
the worrrrld!' Dewar to the lowest of minions... ...no, wait, ...that would be the
Levelord, ...well, anyways, excellent job to all of you (Janine 'Please stop the ride, I
want to get off!' Johnson, John Burns, Chris 'My god, it's actually happening!' Lewis,
Sara "If you call me 'Sarah' once more I'll bite your leg off!' Pelton, Nick Segger,
Ben LeRougetal, Sarah Ricchauti, Simon 'Screw the stiff upper lip!' Jones, Michele
"It's NOT a girl's name!' Marchand, Alex Cook, Alison Gould, Steve Brown, and finally
as in the ultimate, not lastly... ...Sandi 'These pubs are so cool!' Isaacs.
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07 August 1998 |
I'm not sure where to start with the Tour SiN Europa
`98 gig... ...I guess I need to honorably mention Dublin and it's fine people. My first
encouter was early Tuesday morning before we had to gear-up at the castle... ...did I
mention the castle? Way, way cool 13th century estate (although this one had all the
peripets and cranulations, castles usually didn't have ground-level windows, me thinks)
with acres and acres of land that ActiVision rented for the entire week. We promo'ed the
up-n-comings inside and were catered to by "the staff". Most of the estate was
ancient... ...doors with handles at knee-height, hidden passageways, creeking wooden
floors with hand-wrought nails... ...we're talking old and authentic. I walked down some
paths that must have been traversed some centuries ago in much their same state...
...dark, gray, moss-covered, and damp. I was indeed home ;) Oh, sorry, back to Dublin. My first real chance to see the city was early
Tuesday morning before most stores were even open. What a place... ...the merchants not
only sweep the sidewalk outside their store, they also mop it. The smell of the sea air
was think as the droplet-sized dew caused pinpoint sensations on my face. The cawing of
the seagulls and the crowing of the... ...the crows ;) It was marvelous and I'm getting
all teary-eyed just remembering it all... ...hang on, ...okay, ...there, okay...
I've traveled a bit in my time, and I'm always amazed at
how much things are different, and how much they're the same. Soda and cigerettes for
instance... ...they change completely even traveling from England to Ireland. Especially
the diet sodas with their extra localized additives. Yes, yes, I smoked while I was there!
You almost have to as EVERYONE seems to smoke there. Truly, and they smoke everywhere.
Some of you will remember the joys of eating in a restaurant with smoker EVERYWHERE,
...not just in their own little section. Smoking in the grocery stores, smoking in just
about every enclosed area you can imagine. Women in labor puffing away! I mean everyone!
...then they start to drink and even the stoutest of health freaks soon bends under the
social pressure. My eyes would ache in excrusiating pain by the end of an evening in the
pubs. ...ah, the memories ;) ...the smokes are gone again, BTW, ...it was just a "do
as the Celtic do when in Kilts" kinda thing.
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08 August 1998 |
As pointed out in numerous emails... ...the castle's name was Lutterstown Castle, a name
that seemed to baffle the Yankee tongue at first, but one that by week's end rolled off
the tongue with the litest lilt. Speaking of lilts, Ireland has a strange of rubbing off,
or infecting maybe, all those that visit. Most of us had picked up a detectable Irish
flair to our accent within a few short days. Maybe it's the water ;) Okay, okay... ...on to the center ring and the star of our show...
...the Wicked Elexis! ActiVision did a superb job and hired a gorgeous model to play the
role of our beloved villainesse. Other than having a slightly softer face than our in-game
version, she was perfect! ...right down to the (although healed now) belly button
peircing. She was all real, too, no DuPont to be fondled... ...er, found, ...sorry.
ActiVision had a custom outfit made and Elexis' act was
incredible. Although the face may have been softer, the attitude was all that we
originally envisioned. Elexis would stroll the groups of press and distributors, whacking
the males on the shoulder... ...or elsewhere, and say "Naughty boy!". You could
see the newly immerging beads of sweat glisten on the forehead of her victim... ...even
the normally cool-and-collected Mediterraneans ;)
She quickly learned who I was and from then on called me
"Creator!". I still got abused like everyone else, but it was chest-filling (my
chest) to hear here exclaim that as she crossed the room towards me. Sorry, Michael...
...someone had to play the role of creator ;)
Although one grew accustomed to it quickly, every so
often I would pull back from the crowd and realize what an incredible event this really
was. I remember the "old" world in which many Europeans wouldn't be caught dead,
or they would be caught dead, in the same room as some of the attending coutries. I
believe just about every Western and Central Europe nation was represented... ...from the
newest Slovatnia to the grandest Nederlands.
Particularly cool was to wine and dine and talk
computer games with my new Russian comrad Serge from GameLand magazine in Moscow. Does
anyone else remember not so long ago when we were pointing big, nasty guns at each other?
Now, we're playing deathmatch together... ...way cool! Serge brought me a bottle of REAL
Russian vodka... ...me, one of the dudes that would listen for their new Tango Class
Soviet Nuclear Submarine as it slipped down the Kamchatski Peninsula for the first time
just 20 years ago. What a great turn of events! "Computer games saved the
world!"... ...that's what they'll say in a hundred years, ..."Screwed up an
entire generation, but they saved the world!" ;)
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| 10 August 1998 |
Time is such a precious commodity right now... ...there's so much to tell
about Elexis and Ireland and Elexis and... ...here's a quickie for you at least... ...it's
called, ..."Elexis and the Bag Piper". The last night of the castle gig was extra special. ActuVision hired two bag
pipers to stand out front and great us as we returned to the castle for dinner. It was
quite impressive... ...being in Ireland, two pipers playing against the backdrop of a 13th
century castle. I didn't know whether I wanted to cry or go off to fight a war. Bag pipes
always make me all goose pimply ;)
Anyhow, after about 15 minutes, everyone had filtered in
where the alcohol was... ...of course. I was more in tune to listening to the pipers and
catching a lonely smoke outside. Within a minute, my dear Elexis showed up to join me...
...in a fag, ...err, cigarette ;) She leared and stared at one of the pipers and she
puffed long and slow on her cigarette. He kept doing that quick shift of the eyes and then
almost immediately pop them back forward again. He was obviously very flustered.
Well, our girl wasn't satisfied with this alone so she
meandered over the piper and give him one of her slaps on the shoulder and a "Naughty
boy!". That was it... ...the pipes went squelch and he dropped them to the floor. He
was NOT amused and gave Elexis a very dirty look. She scuffed and returned to her creator,
... errr, me. After a few more drags of her smoke she went off for the drinks. I asked the
piper if he was really upset and with a look of ice he said "Yessss! Dunny everrr doo
that agin! ...everrr".
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12 August 1998 |
!!
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15 August 1998 |
A few last Irish tidbits before it's all lost and
forgotten. What a sad thought... ...Ireland was so cool and, again, I highly recommend it
to any and all travellers! Anyhow, a few Irish
Enigmas... ...(1) I haven't seen so many people eating so much fatty food in 20 years, yet
noone seemed to be overweight. Not like we get here, at least. Three kinds of meat with
their eggs in the morning, lunchs that would fill me for three meals, and dinners that
were even larger. (2) I've never seen so many people drink so heavily and so long into the
night, and still get up early and chipper in the morning. (3) Finally, I wonder how long
it takes them to learn to drive on the wrong side of the road.
A quick bit of humor to-boot... ...the "Foreign
Shits!" Girl. The lasy night that we partied with the press found us all back at the
hotel waiting for the residents bar to open. Strange set-up over there in that there are
different types of bars... ...some that close at 11pm, others that can stay open till 3am,
others, ...well, they wouldn't let me in those others.
Anyhow, it was about 11pm and we were all sitting
in the lounge of the hotel. The lounge was large and filled with plush couches. I was
sitting in one couch next to a Belgium dude, and across from us in another couch sat a
French girl (names withheld 'just in case';). We were talking about the cool ActiVision
fireworks at Lutterstown Castle and the Four Horsemen and all, when all of a sudden this
girl comes stumbling in. Her swagger was so exaggerated that I thought she must be putting
us on. She wasn't! She swaggers over and barely flops into the couch next to the French
girl. Her eyes were rolling and her head was swaying and she was trying to say something
as she slowly started to pass out on the French girl's shoulder. Well, the French girl
asked if she could help in any way... ...with an obvious French accent. The stupored girl
awakened immediately, looked over at me, then the Belgian, and finally the French girl and
said "Fucking foreign shits!". There was the loose lower lip and drool that
comes with any intoxicated yelling, BTW. The three of us looked at each other in complete
amazement as the drunk teetered her way to a stand and yelled once more...
..."Fucking foreign shits!" She had a think English accent, BTW ;) She then
stumbled towards the elevator, tried to scale the waste-high banaster between her and the
elevator, only to fall into the arms of two hotel personnel. Quite amusing it was,
although it looses some of its flair in the re-write...
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16 August 1998 |
It turns out that the c|net SiN thing was on a show called TV.com which airs on ABC on
early Saturday and Sunday mornings. I didn't even know about this show and thought it
would be on one of their other four shows on the Sci-Fi/USA networks. Sorry for the
confusion... My FAKKing kinsmen and I will be
blessed with guest passes to Blue Oyster Cult's concert this Wednesday night. I'm
especially psyched, having been a devote fan since 1973.
I still remember the first time I saw Blue Oyster Cult in
concert in 1974. They were playing with Kiss and some other warm-up group in Lockhaven,
Pennsylvania. We drove down from State College in Steve Grenoble's car. Beyond the normal
entertainment of loading up a car with high school stoners and heading of for a far-away
concert... ...on a week night... ...we had the added thrill of Steve's car.
The car had no brakes, either regular or emergency, and
he had to downshift to get the car to stop. A complete stop required an engine cut-off as
first gear cranked to its fianl rotations. For the unanticipated stops, like a train (no
shit!), he had to throw it into reverse.
The most memorable part of the evening, though, was when
we booed the warm-up band off the stage... ...right off the stage, we did, ...song #3 and
they gave up. I feel bad now, knowing the embarrassment and anger they must have felt, but
we were there to hear *rock* groups like BOC and Kiss... ...not some falsetto, faggetty
singing trio like this warm-up group.
...the warm-up group was called Rush, BTW, ...little did
we know ;)
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25 August 1998 |
My ears will melt, and then my eyes! Blue Oyster Cult was certainly awesome
last night and I highly recommend anyone of ripened years... ...Blue, ...neigh! ...young
and old alike, to go see these bastards when they swing through the neighborhood. They
played a few songs from their new "Heaven Forbid" album, ...errrr, ...CD, but
even better, they played more than an hour of their truly great favorites from albums,
...errr, ...CDs past. Very cool show, very cool indeed! The best part was getting the chance to see the boys
backstage. It's a strange mixture of feelings, meeting celebrities, in that I'm always
sort of let down to find that they are only mortals like myself, yet I'm also very pleased
to find that they are just regular people doing cool shit. Some celebs are so taken by
themselves that meeting them can be a real drag. Cracking a Corona with the likes of Eric
Bloom, however, was just plain awesome!
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