Night's Black Agents: Play, Notes

So! Last night we were down one character (Lockwood) because her player got called out of town, so she stayed in Zurich to keep an on Marie and Francois. The others head to Paris, and Rousseau got them a safe house (using Celeste, her contact in the Police Nationale). 

Rousseau met with Celeste and asked about human trafficking, and got the named Vasily Avilov. Avilov is third-generation Russian mafia, and reported his grandfather started in the KGB. He's young, but dangerous and ruthless - fled to France to avoid arrest in Russia for murder, assault, rape, etc. He's been arrested here but never jailed, and he's smart and connected. And definitely involved in kidnapping tourist girls, getting them addicted, and sending them east.

The characters did some investigating; Hanover and Rousseau went to the law firm that handles Tasse's business and handled Thibault's divorce. Hanover sneaked off and found a computer, hacked into their system and downloaded the relevant files. Simple op.

That night, Smith and David went to the lab (the one that Tasse contracts to do their animal testing; they'd found the samples sent from here when they were in Osijek). They broke in, and David went through the paperwork and found the relevant experiment. The abstract read strangely - it was talking about using a nutritional supplement to help combat chronic fatigue, but in the context of what the PCs knew (i.e., vampires), it looked more like the supplement was meant to make blood more nutritious as a food source. 

Smith noted cameras - too sophisticated for this place. He grabbed on and disabled it, but figured they had been spotted. They left, and everyone met back up at the safe house.

The divorce papers seemed to support what the characters suspected - Thibault was paying a lot more than was probably necessary, and Marie had never asked for more money, only reconciliation. In the event of her remarrying, the money continues, but gets paid to his son. It looked like, for all the world, he was protecting them but keeping them distant. 

They had the camera from the lab, so Hanover whipped together a device to track its signal. They followed that to a warehouse not far from the lab...and investigating, they found the place stores Tasse goods. It also has a refridgerated section, which indicated to the characters that going in would be a bad. David, then, noticed that the signal was getting distorted, so they bugged out, taking a circuitous route home.

Rousseau had another contact, a priest named Father Michel Dumas. The characters went to Notre Dame so she could met with him, and she sat down in confessional. She asked about human trafficking, and he didn't know anything about Avilov, but agreed to put her in touch with a member of the Knights of Malta (the Vatican's intelligence arm), who might be able to help. 

And then she asked about vampires. Dumas was taken aback, but listened to her and her evidence, and then asked: If this was a serial killer, would you stop it? If so, why was this different? Rousseau considered, perhaps regretting leaving three vampires in Osijek who were killing nightly. 

She left, and David (and then the others) noticed a man taking pictures of Rousseau. David walked up on him and stuck him with a needle, and the men took him to the bathroom. His passport (Russian) identified him as Mikhael Golubov. They stole the memory card from his camera and cloned his smartphone, and then the agents separated and met back at the safe house. 

The pictures on the phone were all of Rousseau, but they started at the church. Doing some data recovery, they found older pictures of women at the airport. Rousseau ran those faces through some recognition software - several had been reported missing, some had turned up dead. Golubov, apparently, worked for Vasily. 

His smartphone confirmed that. Someone sent him an email with a picture of Rousseau, telling him to follow her and find where she went. The photo, Rousseau realized, was taken after she met with her contact in Sarajevo, Ivana Zisek. Ivana, apparently, had been made. 

One of the girls on the list was still in France; she'd been arrested for solicitation (Olive Parent). The characters figured they'd better make contact with her, and they needed to find out how Golubov traced Rousseau to the church. So far, it seemed they'd only made Rousseau. 

Movie #205: Goldeneye

Goldeneye is the first of the Brosnan Bond films, and stars him, Famke Janssen, Alan Cumming, Sean Bean, Judi Dench, Izabella Scorupco, and Joe Don Baker.

Bond and Alex Trevelyan 006 (Bean) break into a Russian facility of some kind to blow it up. Trevelyan is killed, Bond returns to England, bangs the lady sent to evaluate him after a car chase with a mysterious sexy lady (Janssen), and gets sent to check out a Russian general Gottfried John. Said general and mysterious hot lady who crushes men between her thighs and loves every second of it (her name is Xenia Onatopp, FFS) kill a bunch of people at a secret weapons develop lab, leaving only two survivors - Boris (Cumming) and Natalya (Scorupco). Missed opportunity, there; I'd have named her Natasha.

Anyway, turns out there's a weapon that sends an EMP down to Earth and does EMP things, go to Russia, meet with Russian crime boss (Robbie Coltrane, with a fantastic cameo by Minnie Driver as his mistress), shoot, shoot, sex, sex, bad guy turns out to be Trevelyan, blah blah. It's a Bond film; you can't get hung up about plot too much.

I will say, though, that this was kind of the last really good one before we "rebooted" with Daniel Craig. There are some gadgets, but they don't overshadow the rest of the movie. The action is good and loud (TANK ON THE STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG), but it gives you some time to breathe (although the jump cuts are terrible). The performances are good. I enjoyed Brosnan's Bond, and I liked Janssesn very much as Onatopp. The glee she shows when killing people or being hurt is just amazing, and you very much buy her in the role. Likewise, Bean's villain is appropriately evil, and manages to hit Bond with a couple of zingers, which is always nice. Cumming really sort of steals the show as the neurotic, sort of slimy computer programmer; his death scene is the one people tend to remember.

The Bond girl (Scorupco) is sort of boring. She's pretty, and she is a hell of a lot more believable in the role than Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist named Christmas (we'll get to "W" eventually), but I think that she didn't stand out overmuch. But for a Bond movie, this one's pretty understated, which considering the amount of shit getting blown up, is a weird statement. So she works.

My grade: B+
Rewatch value: Medium

Next up: Gone in 60 Seconds

Movie #204: Godspell

Godspell is a 1973 film version of the musical of the same name, starring Victor Garber, David Haskell, and eight other folks.

The show is basically the Gospel of Matthew set to 70s music. In the movie, eight people are going about their days, and then John the Baptist (Haskell) appears to them, baptizes them in a fountain, and makes ready for Jesus (Garber) to show up. And then they hit a junkyard and do themselves up like clowns, and perform a bunch of parables. It's all very light, joyous and playful.

But you know how this ends. Judas (same role as John) betrays Jesus and he gets crucified (well, hung from a chain-link fence with red cloth) and "dies".

I have some history with this show. I was in it when I was in college, and the musical director, though younger than me, was a fucking musical genius. He and I ended up dating for a while - he was really my first relationship with a man that had a romantic as well as a sexual component. Matt was murdered in 2008 by two of his students in Vegas. I hadn't spoken to him in years, but the last time I did, he told me that he'd been pretty heavily in love with me during our relationship. I never knew that, and I certainly didn't treat him like I should have (I was in my 20s, my head wasn't on straight). Anyway. All that means for our purposes is that I didn't get through "On the Willows," which he sang in our production, without crying.

Sorry for the digression. Movie. Well, I'm not Christian, but this show has always had an effect on me, and it kinda still does. I really enjoy that the first two-thirds of it are so simple and colorful and playful, and then it switches pretty quickly once we realize that, no, Jesus has to die.

Now, we can get into the debates about whether that actually means anything in the context of the story. Sure, it's moving and all, but only if you accept the premise. There's a lot in the show (and in the Gospel) like that - "Love God above all" only works if you accept that there is a god and that he's worthy of that love, and I don't. And it's really amazing how much of the morality and parables are dependent on that. The whole "lilies of the field" thing, for instance, is only comforting or meaningful if you accept that god exists. And so on.

And yet - the earnestness with which this cast performs this show, and the general love that they show one another, is fun to watch. Even if the larger messages are not really useful, the show is fun, bright, and, again, playful.

And though I'm not any kind of theist anymore, I can't quite bring myself to say I don't like it. I've got too much attached to it.

My Grade: B
Rewatch value: Low

Next up: Goldeneye

Movie #203: Glengarry Glen Ross

Glengarry Glen Ross is a drama based on a play by David Mamet, so right away you know it's going to be a bunch of men cursing a lot. The movie stars Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin (briefly), Alan Arkin, Ed Harris...I guess that's all.

So! All these guys are salesman. They sell property, I guess, real estate? Anyway, Shelley Levene (Lemmon), Dave Moss (Harris) and George Aaronow (Arkin) haven't been doing especially well of late, and they get a visit from a high-rolling salesman from higher up in the company (Baldwin), who basically tells them they either sell or they fuck off. Ricky Roma (Pacino) misses this meeting, but he's the top seller anyway.

The rest of the movie is largely cutting between Aaronow and Moss planning to rob the office, Roma talking with a mark (Jonathan Pryce), and Levene trying desperately to get a promising lead off the manager, Williamson (Spacey) and make enough money to pay for an unspecified medical procedure for his daughter.

And then the office is robbed, and the police show up, and there's more arguing, cursing, and yelling, and eventually Shelly confesses that he and Moss did the robbery. The movie ends with Roma effortlessly getting a lead, and Aaronow finally saying what everyone thinks: "I hate this job," as he sits down to chase leads.

The acting in the movie is amazing. Everyone is spot-on, fast, and brutal, even Jack Lemmon, and it's fun to see him display some teeth before immediately dropping down into terror and pathetic-ness. Pacino is Pacino, but he manages some vulnerability when his deal goes south. This is young Kevin Spacey, but you can see seeds of greatness here. Really the whole cast is great.

The script is well-written, but it's so fucking bleak. (Mamet, man.) And, honestly, it's hard to care. I mean, none of these people are especially likeable. The ones that we feel for the most are Levene (who at least has a strong motivation for what he does), and we would feel a bit for Williamson, maybe, for being so put-upon...except he deliberately gives Levene a lead that takes him to a delusional couple that likes talking to salesmen, which means that sale he thought he made is worthless. So really, fuck these guys.

And "guys" is the right word. The only woman you even see in the movie is a woman working at the Chinese restaurant where they all hang out. Others are mentioned, but never in any way that lets you know anything about them.

Incidentally, there was a live read of this movie (not the play, the movie) with an all-female cast that I really wish I could see somewhere. Robin Wright as Ricky Roma, Catherine O'Hara as Levene, and so on.

My grade: B+
Rewatch value: Low

Next up: Godspell

Movie #202: Glen or Glenda

Glen or Glenda is, of course, the 1953 movie directed (and written by, and starring) Edward D. Wood, Jr. (though he acted under a stage name), Dolores Fuller, Bela Lugosi, Timothy Farrell, and "Tommy" Haynes (I have no idea why the quotes are there).

This movie is a mess, of course. The Scientist (Lugosi) acts as kind of a narrator, but doesn't actually narrate anything relevant to the story. Farrell's character, a psychiatrist named Alton, spends much of the movie talking with a police inspector (Lyle Talbot) about the suicide of a transvestite name Patrick/Patricia, seeking to understand transvestism and transsexualism (not that the word "transsexual" is ever used). Alton tells the story of Glen/Glenda (Wood), who wants to marry his girlfriend Barbara (Fuller) but likes to dress as a woman. And then there's the secondary story of Alan/Anne (Haynes), who lives as a man but wants to be a woman, and eventually gets a sex change.

The dialog is same rambling, nonsensical crap we get in Bride of the Monster, but it's even less focused and more ridiculous, somehow. Alton and the inspector wax philosophical about the nature of man and what makes a man, what induces a man to dress as a woman, pseudo-hermaphrodites and sex changes, and really, if you watched the movie without the context of knowing that Wood was a transvestite, the "wtf" would be seriously amplified. As it is, you feel kind of bad for him - the movie is obviously a plea for acceptance and normalcy for him personally (the opening title card ends with You are society - JUDGE YE NOT), and many reassurances throughout the movie are made that transvestites are totally normal and should be allowed to dress in a way that allows them to feel normal and comfortable, which, of course, they should. (There's also an assurance that, no, they're not homosexual, they're "normal", but hell, this was 1953, and Ed Wood was not a man gifted with good use of language on the best of days - the grammar in his dialog makes me cringe generally).

One of the sad things about the movie is Lugosi. He's playing "the Scientist", and he's got no substantial role, just rambles on about snips and snails and puppy-dog tails and green dragons. But watching him, you can see the actor in there - he's obviously professional and trained, much more so than anyone else in the movie. I really need to watch some of his earlier work.

Anyway, the movie is terrible, but it's more watchable on a second viewing, strangely enough. Wine helps, too.

My Grade: F
Rewatch Value: IINSIAIFWT

Next up: Glengarry Glen Ross

Movie #201: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an adaptation of Swedish author Stieg Larsson's novel of the same name, and stars Michael Nvquist, Noomi Rapace, Sven-Bertil Taube, Ingvar Hirdwall, and Peter Andersson. This, obviously, is the first film adaptation, in Swedish, not the more recent one with Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, which I don't own.

So: Mikhael Blomkvist (Nvquist) is a journalist who's just been found guilty of libel against a wealthy businessman. He's going to prison for three months, but not for another six months, and in the meanwhile he's offered a job trying to figure out the 40-year-old presumed murder of the niece of another millionaire, Henrik Vanger (Taube). He moves out to the little island where this all happened and starts digging into the pasts of some thoroughly unpleasant people.

Meanwhile, the titular girl, Lisbeth Salender (Rapace) is keeping tabs on him; she was originally paid to investigate him before Vanger hired him. She's a ward of the state, despite being a legal adult (Sweden must be more serious about making sure mentally ill folks get help than the US, not that that's a high bar), and her new guardian ambushes and rapes her. She then ambushes and assaults him, takes control of her finances, and gets back in the game, as it were; she goes out to Hedestad and joins up with Mikhael to figure this all out.

In the end, it turns out that the girl was alive, but her father and brother were serial killers and she killed her father and escaped to Australia with her cousin's help. And then Lisbeth robs the original evil businessman of a lot of money, and the movie ends.

Oy. Well, this version differs from the book in some key places, but I also understand that they filmed the whole trilogy back to back (and I've only read the first book so far). The performances, Rapace especially, are amazing, and I think her interpretation of Salender makes more sense than the American one. Not that the American version was bad, it's just a different take.

I think, though, that the American version might adapt the book a little better. This one simplified Mikhael a little too much (they completely omit his relationship with Erika Berger, for instance), and the American one felt more robust. Then again, I'm a huge Fincher fan, so there's that.

I'm looking forward to reading the other books so I can watch the other movies, anyway.

My Grade: B+
Rewatch value: Low

Next up: Glen or Glenda?

Road Trip, part 2: Lizards and Gorges

I'm in Oklahoma! (Not the musical, the actual place.) We'll be here for the next few days, and then we'll escape leave on Sunday. Hopefully Ohio remembers us.

So! Last time we were in Nebraska. We drove from there to Denver, Colorado, and stayed in a lovely hotel called Aloft, where I left my fucking phone chargers. They're sending them back (via FedEx, which made me a little salty - you can't just put them in a padded envelope and mail them? No? FINE.), but it's made communication somewhat difficult.

We did, however, find an awesome little place to have breakfast.

Whaddup. I got a big cock.

I don't take pictures of my food, because I love you all. Here's a thing, though. Across the street was this:

This building just looked creepy as hell. Seriously, my first thought was "Infrastructure."

So from there, we went to the Garden of the Gods. Now, if you've read Hunting Ground: Rockies, you know that this is a meeting place for werewolves. I didn't see any while there (that I know of), but I can see how it would work. Here are some pictures of the natural splendor.

It rained quite a lot while we were in the area, but the bulk of it happened before we got there, so we didn't get drenched. We did quite a lot of walking. I was looking for rattlesnakes, but I did not seen any. More pictures?

A blue bird, for my mom.

A meeting of birds. "Who's for birdstrike, then?"

They must have had a contest. I think this is cute.

Rocks fall...

...everyone dies.

And then back at the parking lot, we saw a bighorn sheep, but waaaaay up on mountain. I did my best, but I don't have a terrific camera.

Majestic!

We were going to drive up Pike's Peak, but we were already running behind and had a bit of driving to do. So we drove into Manitou Springs for lunch.

Manitou Springs is an awesome little town, but the traffic patterns are...well, odd. The dude behind us was a local, and got really annoyed at how slowly I was driving, but I was a) figuring out where I could turn and b) trying to find lunch and parking. I was kind of hoping he'd zoom off in a huff and hit a tree.

A really cool map.

Note Al looming in the doorway.

We found a local cafe to have lunch (above), and then we headed on our merry way.

We wound up in New Mexico. We crossed the Rio Grande Gorge, and stopped for pictures because it's pretty awesome.

You're specifically asked not to throw things off.

Happy folks!

We stayed in Ojo Caliente (Hot Eye? Still haven't figured that one out), right across the street from a natural hot springs. More on that presently.

Now, when Michelle booked the room, the idea was to get a room in the main building. But we're in the off season, so I think we were literally the only guests. So they "upgraded" us to a cabin kind of thing, which was fine - slightly more space, and all. Two main problems.

1) The master bedroom has no door. This is fine if you're staying by yourself, but if you've got two teenage boys and would like some modicum of privacy, not so much.

2) No wifi. And Michelle asked about this, and the owner was utterly confused. Apparently these people are not from the Internet. Arrgh.

But, we managed to find really mediocre Mexican food for dinner (seriously, there is nothing in this town except the hot springs, and their restaurant was closed). Michelle and I went over to the springs and soaked for a while, which was nice. There are multiple pools, each of which supposedly have different mineral content that, allegedly, has a different healing effect on you. I suspect this is largely bullshit, but I'm a big fan of soaking in warm water, so that was fine.

Next day - rafting! We headed out in the morning, leaving early because we were worried about not finding the place (the instructions said "don't put this into GPS, it'll take you 30 miles in the wrong direction"). It was in a little "town" called Pilar, so we found that, and the Rio Grande Visitor's Center (our meeting point). There was a little cafe-type place across the street, though, and that means breakfast.

Michelle and Al are happy to be alive. Will less so. 

We ate breakfast (green chiles in everything, life is good) and headed over to the visitor's center to await our guides.

Our route. Kinda. I just like 3D maps.

The view from the back patio.

And then rafting! Water was low, but the rafting was a lot of fun. Our guide was really awesome, and we found a good flow, because we didn't get hung up on rocks. He said that there had been river otters released into that river, but we didn't see any. I did go swimming a bit in the...um...very bracing water, but obviously I have no pictures.

From there, we went back to the cabin, took the boys over to the springs to soak, got some dinner, and crashed for the night. The next day was a loooooong drive.

Yep. Next morning, we drove first to Santa Fe and had breakfast at Chocolate Maven, which was awesome (I forgot to get pictures). And then we headed in to Corvalles, and stopped at Village Pizza for lunch (I know that seems like two meals right in a row, but there's really not much but driving in between). Village Pizza was awesome (cheeseburger pizza with green chiles - yum). Also there were lizards.

He sat for a picture once he figured I wasn't going to eat him. 

We waited for the pizza a bit...

Waiting.

And then headed out to find a winery. The first one we kinda struck out on (they're only open weekends), but then we went to the Corvalles Winery, and they were open, and it was lovely.

We tasted some wine - they only had four, but holy cats, their Riesling is amazing. We bought some wine, and the boys waited "patiently."

Will, in the running for "world's saltiest boy."

Finally, we got paying for wine sorted (their credit card machine was being stupid), and off we went. We swung through Albuquerque to see Michelle's old house:

And then on to Oklahoma! I'm out of pictures past that point, but I didn't want to leave off on that note, so I saved this picture from New Mexico of a coyote. He stopped to pose for us.

Sup.

More pictures as soon as something interesting happens! In Oklahoma.