We are well into Fall. Texas has primarily two seasons, Summer and mild Summer. Not much of a Fall or Spring season.

Here in Northern Arizona, my wife and I are experiencing more of a true Fall season with plenty of opportunity to catch the trees changing colors.

Fall colors at Snow Bowl in AZ

It's been a month since my last post. Work-wise, the fourth quarter of every year is typically a bit slow. Lots of people realize they need to use their paid time off and all take it around the holidays.

I've caught a few films around attending BoardGameGeek Con 2022. More details are below.

Movies

  • Barbarian was better than I thought it would be and one of those films where the trailer doesn't tell you where this film is going. It's a wild ride and I enjoyed it.
  • The Banshees of Inisherin was really good. When two great friends have their relationship end abruptly by one of them, the question of why keeps your attention. Great acting all around in this one.
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever does a great job of moving on with the loss of its star, Chadwick Boseman, from the first film. I felt that the first one was a little better, but not significantly so. Kind of liked that none of the other existing Marvel heroes from other films made an appearance in it.
Ralph Fiennes commands the kitchen in The Menu
  • The Menu was fun. More social commentary / black comedy than a horror film, from what they'd have you believe from the trailer. Still a fun time as you're taken through the menu and experience the chef has laid out for his carefully selected patrons. There's more than just food in store for them.

Reelhouse Foundation Films

October ended a series of first films from famous directors. Then we headed into a murder/mystery series for November.

Sweetie (the character on the right) is more of a mess than her name implies
  • Sweetie (1989) is Jane Campion's first film. She later went on to win an Academy Award for The Piano. The two feel like they came from two different directors so she learned a lot in the four years between those films. Sweetie is more like a John Waters film. I thought it was okay, but none of the characters are really likable.
  • The Hunger (1983) is Tony Scott's first film. He went on to make many more movies including Top Gun, True Romance, and my personal favorite film of his, The Last Boy Scout. The Hunger is a vampire tale that's a bit different. Visually amazing.
  • Deathtrap (1982) is a great mystery that I probably saw dozens of times on HBO back when HBO had ten or so movies they rotated back and forth between. I'd forgotten a bit of the details but this film really holds up. Great to catch it again.
  • The Last of Sheila (1973) is an interesting mystery. The first half of the movie was okay, but then something happened that focused my attention and kept it for the rest of the film.

BoardGameGeekCon 2022

If you've seen my past posts, you know I play a lot of board games. BoardGameGeek is the main source of info on the web about board games, and they're in the Dallas area. So living in Dallas made it easier for me to attend since it was a short drive from my house.

This year, however, I don't live in Texas. It was my fourth or fifth convention, and I mainly went because it was conveniently timed with when my board gaming friends from Dallas were available for a gaming retreat. We chose BGGCon.

It was a lot of fun. Primarily because it was great to get together with the guys again.

Here's a full list of games we played. You can follow links to learn more about them on boardgamegeek.com.

Taluva Deluxe
Photosynthesis
Flamme Rouge
Revive
Peanut is about to help me setup Star Wars: Outer Rim 

One of my favorite parts of BBGCon in the past has been hanging out in the expo hall with various game companies and experiencing their new games.

This time, however, there was a lack of game publishers in attendance. Which was a bit of a letdown.

I feel that possibly another gaming convention, PAX, may have drawn some of the attention away from BGGCon since they are just a few weeks apart and PAX is the newer, trendier convention. PAX's expo hall compared to BGGCon's is much more impressive.

Contestants at the BBGCon Battling Tops tournament

The funnest event of the convention for me is their Battling Tops tournament. The highlight is seeing all the costumes the various teams wear. My favorites were the mimes, who didn't break character and were all quite animated in their gestures.

A fun convention I'd definitely return to.