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Matt's End of Summer Favorites Part 3: Travel

8/29/2015

Hello dear readers, and welcome once again to my month-long series of mini-lists about some of my favorite things about summer. Already I've already discussed some of my favorite tabletop games that I enjoy on a hot summer day in and my favorite superhero movies, but on this last list of the month, I'm going to be talking about one of my favorite things to do (with time and money at least): travel.

And what could be more summer, at least where we are, than the great American road trip? Yup, that's right, today we're going to be talking about:

MATT'S 8 FAVORITE
ROAD TRIP MEMORIES

Compared to a lot of people, I know my wife and I aren't that well traveled. We don't take that many trips, and our international experience is pretty limited (though not non-existent). But like a lot of things we do when we have available time and money, when we road trip, we like to go all out. We once did a three week cross-country road trip from California to Maine and back and survived with our relationship intact. Even when we go on a single-destination trip, we're going to see as much as we can and try to have as much fun as we can in our own, odd, touristy sort of way. So on this list I just wanted to share some of my favorite memories and destinations from our years of road-tripping. Many are from our great road trip, a few are from journeys we've taken since. And since I find ranking them nearly impossible, here I'm just going to do them in chronological order.

Roswell, New Mexico

I'm both a big fan of science fiction (which you may or may not be able to tell based on my blog) and a huge student of UFO lore from the 20th century, so I knew without a doubt that we had to swing by Roswell on our great road trip. The Roswell International UFO Museum & Research Center was a must-see highlight of the town, featuring history not only of the region and it's (alleged) history with UFO's, but the UFO phenomenon in general. While I won't go so far as to call myself a believer, they had enough interesting artifacts and stories here to make me stop and think.

Memphis, Tennessee

While we didn't spend a lot of time in Memphis proper on our great road trip, there was one stop in the city we had to make: Graceland. From everything I'd heard, I honestly expected this to be one of the tackiest tourist destinations on Earth, but when we got inside and got to follow the audio tour, I was glad to be proven wrong. The museum portion of Graceland is tremendously respectful and detailed in the life and history of Elvis Presley (warts and all), and I came out of the day with a lot more respect for the man than I had before.

Not that some of his design choices in the house itself weren't... imaginative.

Though he might've had something with the 3 TVs at once idea.

Washington, D.C.

My wife and I are huge museum nerds, so D.C. was kind of a three day paradise for us on the great road trip. Sure, it was mid-summer and humid as hell, so we were roasting pretty effectively, but getting the opportunity to check out the monuments on the mall as well as the Smithsonian's was an amazing treat. That being said, the one downside to D.C. is it's rather inventive street layout and driving patterns, the most difficult we had to deal with in the country (and we live in L.A.), but thankfully I'm good with maps and Fi's a delightfully aggressive driver.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

I majored in history, and perhaps my favorite era of history to study was the American Revolution, so you can say I was a little excited to hit Philadelphia on our great road trip. Sadly we did not get much time to do this, as we had spent much of the day checking out the rest of Pennsylvania, so we couldn't tour Independence Hall. We could, however, check out the Liberty Bell and got to take in a horse-drawn carriage tour of old Philadelphia, which arguably turned out to be the highlight of the whole road trip (well, for me at least, Fi's thoughts on this differ I'm sure).

Niagara Falls, New York

This one's simple. We rode the Maid of the Mist. We got wet. It was really, really awesome.

Denver, Colorado

We didn't do as much on our return trip as we did on our trip outbound on the great road trip, but perhaps the biggest highlight was stopping for dinner in Casa Bonita, a.k.a. America's Most Exciting Restaurant, in Denver, Colorado. Admittedly we did this entirely because of the South Park episode where Cartman locks Butters in a bomb shelter in an effort to defraud his friends and get a free trip to Casa Bonita, but seeing how absolutely insane this place is on the inside (roving bands and jugglers, a three story waterfall with cliff divers, mazes and games and a haunted cave...), we could kind of see why he did it. The food was quite decent, too, for a restaurant that's kind of like a kids show on drugs.

San Francisco, California

All right, now for some favorites that didn't come from our epic, great road trip. Not having a whole lot of money to go around after our wedding, Fi and I decided to stick relatively local for our honeymoon and headed on up for a week in San Francisco in autumn, which honestly has to be one of the most beautiful places around. We saw the sights (including favorites Alcatraz and the crazy vintage arcade machines at the Musee Mechanique), took in a lot of great food, and being us naturally had a lot of fun wandering the San Francisco Zoo. My only regret was that we hadn't seen The Room beforehand, as that would have made this trip pretty much perfect.

Las Vegas, Nevada

For people who aren't into clubbing and gambling, this one probably seems a little nuts, but Las Vegas is one of our favorite cities to have fun. Why? Because, once you get past the gambling and the clubs, it's basically a giant, city-sized amusement park. There's themed lands (casinos), roller coasters, magic shows, museums, and even a giant ferris wheel. Fi and I just love to go periodically and walk the strip, take in a show, watch the Bellagio Fountains, and maybe do a little roulette (or perhaps spend an afternoon at The Mob Museum, which is really, really well done)

What are your favorite road trip destinations? Sound off in the comments below!

And as always, please drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter! I'm big into liking/following back!

Facebook: http://facebook.com/mattcarterauthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MCarterAuthor

-- Matt Carter

(We know there's a lot of Matt Carter's online you could spend your time with, so thanks for hanging around this one!)

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Matt's End of Summer Favorites Part 2: Movies

8/22/2015

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Hello dear readers, and welcome once again to my month-long series of mini-lists about some of my favorite things about summer. Already I've already discussed some of my favorite tabletop games that I enjoy on a hot summer day in, but today I'm going to be covering one of my favorite topics in the world: movies.

And in this day and age, what says summer movies more than superhero movies? So yes, today's list, dear readers, is all about...

MATT'S 10 FAVORITE
SUPERHERO MOVIES

Now I hear you asking, "Hey, Matt, 10 movies isn't a mini-list, that's just a list, what gives?" Well, imaginary reader, I'm glad you asked. I'm doing 10 entries on this list because in this day and age, there are two types of superhero movies: Marvel Cinematic Universe films, and everyone else. Unfortunately for the "everyone else" set, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is kind of dominating these days, with their reliable, if usually cookie-cutter, blend of action and wit. So, for the sake of fairness, I've broken this up into two mini lists of five entries each, five from the MCU, and five from everyone else. So first off, let's hit Marvel:

MCU FILMS

5. Thor

Are there better films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Undoubtedly, but the charm of Chris Hemsworth as the God of Thunder in need of some humbling and the layered portrayal of Loki from Tom Hiddleston will always make this an underrated favorite of mine. Also, gotta love the out of nowhere choice of Kenneth Branagh to direct.

4. Iron Man 2

It's possible my wife and I are the only two people who actually like this movie, and I'm fine with that. Taking a darker look at what being a superhero will do to you without losing the Marvel charm, this one may not be one of the most fun Marvel's done, but it's always been a favorite.

3. Guardians of the Galaxy

And from the last film's darkness we go to probably the out and out silliest of the Marvel films. There are so many reasons this one shouldn't have worked, but again, a solid ensemble, a crazy script for them to work off of, and charm to spare (plus a killer soundtrack), make this one of the greats. Keep the fast forward button handy for the villain, though. You can completely skip over his plotline and not miss much.

2. Ant-Man

A strong contender for my # 1, but it's still new so I can't go that far just yet, this is some of the most fun I have ever had at a movie theatre. It's enjoyable from start to finish, witty, and not bogged down too heavily by all the mythologizing that Marvel's famous for. Extra points for making ants (my personal archnemesis at home) cute, and for being a lot better than it should have been given it's troubled production. And hilarious. It's very much that too.

I want there to be a sequel to this so we can see Evangeline Lilly as Wasp, because her character is awesome.

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

See, Marvel tends to work best when they're doing genres that aren't superhero movies (i.e. Guardians as space opera, Ant-Man as a heist film), and they swung for the fences by making the second Captain America film a 70's conspiracy film, complete with Robert Redford, and scored perhaps their best film. Dealing with matters of trust and government oversight, as well as the personal issues that would arise for a man out of time by more than 70 years, it's one of Marvel's darkest while still maintaining that fun that separates these movies from DC.

Extra points to them pulling off Falcon as one of the coolest new heroes on screen.

THE "EVERYONE ELSE" SUPERHERO FILMS

5. Unbreakable

Ah, back in the day when the name M. Night Shyamalan was something to get excited over. This understated, weird, slow little take on the superhero movie is perhaps too meditative, and would have better made a 15 minute origin story for a much more impressive movie, but it's got some interesting deconstructive points even with its flaws I've always liked.

4. Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

The DC Animated Universe is the gold standard in non-print superhero fiction. With deep, adult storylines, solid writing and amazing voice casts, it comes about as close as anything to being a truly definitive superhero adaptation. The strange coda of all these connected series' is a short-lived series called Batman Beyond, about an aged Batman training his newest protégé in the future. The series never really had an ending, but the direct-to-DVD followup, Return of the Joker, does it pretty well. The Batmen go up against Gotham's most dangerous criminal, back from the dead, in one of the darkest and most violent cartoons aimed at kids I've ever seen.

Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill have never been better as Batman and Joker.

3. Kick-Ass

It's nihilistic and cartoonishly violent, and not always in a good way, however this story of a teenaged kid in a real world trying to be a superhero is still alternately heartwarming and poignant, in its own weird way. Then there's Hit-Girl, one of the coolest characters ever put to screen.

2. The Dark Knight

I'll never call Christian Bale and Heath Ledger the definitive Batman and Joker (see Return of the Joker, above, for the true title-holders), but they do a damn good job, and this is an amazing movie. Walking out of the theatre the first time, I just remember thinking to myself, "Yeah, that was basically The Godfather of superhero movies". Ledger earned his Oscar, in a scary, scary performance.

1. The Incredibles

But while The Dark Knight is great, The Incredibles are the true champions in the superhero movie front. Pixars loving homage to the silver age of comics (plus a really sly remake of Watchmen aimed at kids) is a strong contender for the greatest superhero movie ever made. It's bright and colorful, while still morally complex, finding the balance of tones that most modern superhero films have completely forgotten even exists. It has some of the greatest animated performances by a perfectly eclectic cast (Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Jason Lee, Samuel L. Jackson), and yet the show is almost stolen by a 3-foot-tall designer of superhero costumes. Edna Mode, you are possibly the funniest character in a Pixar movie.

NO! CAPES!

God I love this movie.

Agree? Disagree? What are your favorite superhero movies? Sound off in the comments below!

And as always, please drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter! I'm big into liking/following back!

Facebook: http://facebook.com/mattcarterauthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MCarterAuthor

-- Matt Carter

(We know there's a lot of Matt Carter's online you could spend your time with, so thanks for hanging around this one!)

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Matt's End of Summer Favorites Part 1: Games

8/12/2015

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Hello dear readers, I hope you are all having a wonderful summer, even as it’s winding down. Though it’s hot and humid here in Southern California, Fi and I are having an awesome summer, editing and writing, but still finding time to have some odds and ends summer fun. We’ve had adventures, saw a book release, and even attended a convention for Halloween events, which for the two of us, you know, is a big thing.

And that sense of summer fun, I guess, is where this month of blog posts is coming from. I couldn’t decide on just one topic to base a month-long list around, so this month I’m dedicating to a few mini-lists of summer favorites. Adventures, hobbies and summer movies, if it’s summer, or goes great with summer for me, it’s fair game.

So, without further ado, I present my first mini-list of the month:

MATT’S 5 FAVORITE TABLETOP GAMES
PICKED UP AS AN ADULT

Yeah, I know, you read this topic and you think, what the hell does that have to do with summer? But stick with me, I guarantee this is going somewhere. Like many a kid born truly pasty, I spent much of my summers indoors for fear of the ever-entertaining sunburns and the threat of skin cancer (which I guess has hit me as a more real threat now than it did as a kid now that my dad's dealt with skin cancer; relax, he's fine).

Because of this, I got rather acquainted with reading and writing, which I guess is a pretty good thing for me, now, and games of all sorts. Video games and computer games were great for me, because I didn't always have the friends necessary to play board games, but even though I could rarely play them I always loved them. Now that I'm an adult and have friends, I've really gotten to embrace my love for tabletop games of all varieties.

And I'll say this. Board games have changed a lot since I was a kid. They've gotten more complex, more in depth, and have a lot more mechanics for creative gameplay than I remember in the games of my youth. While I still love a lot of those classic games (I will destroy you at Monopoly), today I wanted to dedicate this list to a handful of my favorite games I've discovered as an adult.

5. Balderdash

This one's a simple party game. A dealer picks a card from a deck with a set of weird words and their definitions, writes down the word and definition on a slip of paper, and then gives everyone the word. Players write down their definitions, and then everyone votes on which one they think is correct, points going to the definition-writers. It's a basic, fun game. So why does it make my list?

Because it allows me to inspire madness. While other players try to write definitions that other people will mistake for correct, I don't particularly care about winning and try to use it to make people laugh. My definitions have included such bizarre tangents as "a salesman of erotic doorbells" or "the compulsion to show your grandmother a jar of gravy" and "Swedish translation of, Why yes, I would like to see your monkey farm!"

So, naturally by trying to break the game and just have fun, people tend to vote for me anyways and I've won more than my share of times. What do you know.

4. Gloom

This card game might as well be called "Tim Burton: The Card Game", and that isn't a bad thing, really. In it, you're given a family of quirky, vaguely Victorian characters, and it's your goal throughout the game to use cards to lower their self worth as much as possible through a series of mishaps (that may include getting blackout drunk or pursued by poodles, among other things) before killing them horribly, while making good things happen to your opponents' family before they can do the same.

Simple and twisted in its way, the true place this game shines is that it actively encourages storytelling, making you come up with the craziest possible reasons to make these misfortunes make some kind of sense in an overall story. Sure, this part of the game isn't necessary, but it's made for some fun nights at our household trying to figure out just how messed up we could make it.

3. Dead of Winter

This one may prove to be my favorite game ever, but since I've only had it for a relatively short period of time, I can't say for sure just yet.

Like many a modern board game, this one is set in the zombie apocalypse. And having played a lot of zombie board games, I can tell you they usually just come down to either killing a whole lot of zombies, or running away from a whole lot of zombies, with very little personality to the game itself.

Dead of Winter sets itself apart from that in that it focuses more on a community of people just trying to survive a zombie apocalypse. Every game comes with one big group goal to accomplish, while each player has their own secret goal they must also achieve in order to win, which may or may not involve betraying the entire group. It's mostly cooperative, but there's always a question of trust in every game. In addition, there are crises that come up with every round of play that have to be averted lest something horrible happen, and random events, or "Crossroads", that can be triggered under specific circumstances that often offer cruel yet beneficial choices to be made. It's fun, it's hard, it's deep, and each game you play really feels like it could be a movie in its own right.

2. Cards Against Humanity

Possibly the simplest and most offensive game ever made. I'd go into detail with some of the horrible, horrible things my wife and I and our friends have put together, but I try to keep this website at an R-rating, and some of the stuff in this game goes so far beyond that I don't even know where to rate it. The long and the short of it is one player draws a card with a funny prompt, often fill in the blanks, while players play cards from their hands to try and "win" the prompt from the person who played it by playing what they think the dealer will like the most. Generally this game devolves into who can put the most bizarre, sick or hilariously disturbing card down. I'd give examples, but, well, refer to my R-rating comment above, but you can find some great collections of these on Buzzfeed if you search.

I don't think I have ever laughed more in my life than playing this game with friends and family.

1. Pandemic

A dark horse contender for the top spot to be sure, but this is a game that I love so much because it was the first game to introduce me to the concept of cooperative board games. While most board games are literally about defeating the other players, or at least surpassing every player in the game until a set win/lose condition is met, cooperative games give the entire group of players a single goal (and often a ticking clock) and has them work together to try and complete it, lest something horrible happen in game.

In Pandemic we're set as a group of characters working for the CDC, each with a special ability, trying to race around the world curing a number of diseases before they kill everyone on the planet. A simple, classic goal to be sure, but working together to decide how best to work our moves, combined with a constantly changing game board of disease hotspots and outbreaks, has made for many a fun game night, and a strong contender for one of my favorite new games.

Agree? Disagree? What are your favorite board games? Sound off in the comments below!

And as always, please drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter! I'm big into liking/following back!

Facebook: http://facebook.com/mattcarterauthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MCarterAuthor

-- Matt Carter

(We know there's a lot of Matt Carter's online you could spend your time with, so thanks for hanging around this one!)

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Matt's End of Summer Favorites Part 3: Travel

Matt's End of Summer Favorites Part 2: Movies

Matt's End of Summer Favorites Part 1: Games

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