wombat_socho | further adventures with comedy fittings

So, the long march towards profitability and another fleet-fit Typhoon got a boot in the butt when I scraped together the 38mm iskies to buy a Hurricane hull, which I promptly stuffed full of lazors, missile launchers, and shield hardeners. This has proven good enough to take down weak Sansha battleship rats and utterly rape battlecruiser & cruiser rats, even though I didn't think the Hurricane would have enough grid to carry four medium lazors. Thus the iskies continue to accumulate.

In slightly related news, a local ex-Goon and Ron Paul supporter found my LJ and was excited to find someone of similar political temperament. Unfortunately, they didn't sign their comment, so...*flushing noise*
In case the anonymous commenter comes back, though, I will say that I rather like the DC area; I did grow up here, after all, and a lot of what I liked about the area is still here, although it seems to have moved from P.G. County to Charles County or across the river to Prince William County in Virginia.

The librarian who checked this book out to me commented sotto voce "I couldn't finish it. I had to quit halfway through." Having just finished it, I can understand why. This is basically a collection of the collegiate bullshit that passes for intellectual deep thought in places like Esquire and the internets, and it really doesn't have much to say about pop culture, not even in the section about the Left Behind series. The only part of the book that didn't feel like a complete waste of time was the chapter on the Guns n' Roses cover band, perhaps because I actually learned something new about the subject of cover bands. In addition, Klostermann keeps using "idiom" when he means "context", and this irritates me. Not recommended.

Now that I'm slightly more conscious and sensible than I was at 0300 this morning, some more words about last night's entertainment.
First thing I have to say is that unlike Rockville, Frederick seems to have preserved a lot more of its historical downtown and not subjected everything within two miles of the town center to the sort of Brutalist urban renewal that makes so many of America's cities look like shit. It also appears to have quite an active night life, with a lot of bars open until 0200, tons of restaurants (including some surprisingly upscale ones), and an active theater scene.
Brewer's Alley, conveniently located near the Church Street Ramp - which, BTW, is tastefully tucked away in the center of the block - is the kind of place I probably would have appreciated more a few years ago when I was still drinking, but the food is good enough and varied enough (to say nothing of plentiful enough) to be a very good value. They do a very good pulled pork sandwich, and the sweet potato fries I had as an appetizer while waiting for Brian and Brenda were head and shoulders above the crap I endured at Red Hot and Blue a year ago.
Maryland Ensemble Theater's production of "Incorruptible", about a medieval abbey that falls on hard times after the resident saint's relics cease producing miracles and what the abbot does to solve the problem, is wickedly funny and well acted. There's a love triangle subplot which is subtly revealed, a sibling rivalry between the abbot and his sister, the termagant abbess of the nunnery in the next village over, and the cheerfully thick Brother Ulf. Good fun, well acted; a couple of hours well spent.
I'm of two minds about improv comedy. Like standup, it's all in the timing, but unlike standup (unless you're Don Rickles or somebody like him) it relies a lot on audience participation. Fortunately, the Comedy Pigs have enough of a following that there's no lack of participation. One of their acts is to encourage the audience to leave ideas on the sticky side of Post-It notes during intermission, which the audience then sticks on the floor so that the blank side is up. On their return, the Pigs wander about the floor, pulling notes off the floor and keying off the ideas as they improvise comedic scenes. Very well done, almost as fun as the "Twenty Questions"-esque storekeeper skit, during which the audience was encouraged to come up with unlikely items such as a banana-firing shotgun, a jello wrench, and a diesel-powered vibrator through the use of Madlibs by the MC. Looking forward to seeing their Christmas show, I am. :D

In the meantime, I'm heading out to Fox Way to deal with laundry and pick up something that needs to be faxed over to Arlington. Since Carlos is currently working 72-hour weeks up at Towson, I'm going to pack a book and try not to make much noise, since he'll probably be crashed by the time I get there.