BoomMF

Joe B coming to Austin on Oct 29! Who wants to go watch some pr0n with me?

The Mass 100 looks good. Hot Plates have been the standard for so long, we need options, and I like options with more knobs.

Played Witcher: The Old World. The base game was okay, but it really comes alive with a couple of expansions - Wild Hunt and Monster Trail should have been part of the base game. They complete the experience. Might try some of the houserules I've read online that make the endgame a bit more challenging, but there's a lot to like here as it is. Lords of Ragnarok was very fun, too. We aren't as into conflict, but assets get passed around so frequently and cheaply it's not too big of an issue. I really dig the theme - Norse gods will always be cool. The table presense is typical Awaken Realms, but so is the rulebook. Masters of the Universe: Clash for Eternia hit the table too. I enjoyed the theme more than the kids did because they're just not as familiar with these characters or the history of the IP. I will endeavor to fix that. CMON is probably a sure bet these days. They know what makes a game enjoyable. They went all out with the production here, too. Had some friends over to play and one has a Skeletor tattoo, if that tells you how into this he was. lol Speaking of CMON knowing how to make games, they definately know how to make Zombicide games. Marvel Zombies hasn't fully delivered. I'll get more into this when Galactus, et al. hits. The family played the co-op (coop?) only King of Monster Island. King of New York is an all-timer family game night game and this is a slight twist on that where you all play monsters working together to stop a larger, AI-driven monster from completing its objective. It's fun, like you'd expect. Cranking up the crunch, got Darwin's Journey Deluxe to the table. It's a mechanism salad, which is fine by me. Production to die for. I'm big on Scythe, so I was looking forward to playing Expeditions. The Iron Clad edition's metal mechs are awesome. I have to say, coming back to this world was like visiting an old friend. Jakub Rozalski's art will always be a favorite. I need to play this a couple more times to decide if I like or REALLY like it. Relatedly, I couldn't figure out why my Anycubic Mega X was acting up, so I replaced it with a Kobra Plus. Auto-leveling is the killer app. Been cranking out game organizers straight for weeks now. Even designed my own with Fusion for the first time. It's on now.

I listen to Girl From Ipanema at least once a week. RIP

I have an DJI Inspire 1 v2 that's still fun to fly, but I do the most damage with my army of FPV racers (all Lumenier based frames). Each time I decide to fly them, if I'm lucky and the god's are in a good mood, it only costs about half a dozen propellers and maybe a battery. Usually, though, I leave with 3 air-worthy racers and come home with 1 that still turns on. Fun fun.

Finally got The Automaton of Shale to the table. The family went through the whole campaign. Chip Theory continues to realease hits. And speaking of finally, we played Brass Birmingham for the first time. After it overtook Gloomhaven I just had to see what al the fuss was about. I can now see what all the fuss was about. What a fun, tight Euro. The board's a little dark, and that's the end of the list of qualms. Ra Pharoah Edition arrived a while ago, too. Another fun game that the whole family can enjoy. Will probably add this to the list of games I take to normies' houses. And Earth Deluxe KS, as well. This is on a lot of people's game-of-the-year lists. It's good, but man I feel like I have this game in a bunch of other themes. The game is still fantastic, it's just at this point I think we all know the GOTY formula and can probably predict it with great certainty. Check out The Witcher Old World's great storage solution. When it arrived I was floored by how well-designed the boxes were. The all-in comes in two boxes that combine to form one Kallax-compatible Voltron solution. I made a modification to better store sleeved cards, but the idea that we could get something so well thought out from an OEM gives me hope that companies like CMON will get their sh*t together and do this type of thing for their releases. I was like, damn, what a nice surprise these boxes are! I didn't know they cooked up such a cool storage solution! I went back and looked at the Kickstarter and, sure enough, they made a big deal about the big box storage all throughout the campaign. lol I guess you forget things after years of waiting!

It's an RL 2-sided Monarch with one very faint, non-affecting scratch. About as mint as I've ever seen.

Badass. Being able to see the the second most famous room in Graceland should be on every music lover's bucket list. (Since the public isn't allowed to see the first...) It's been a few hauls since my last post, but to catch up a bit, here's some from the past few weeks. Keeping with the Elvis theme, From Elvis in Memphis One Step hit. I hope to see more audiophile Elvis releases because there are quite a few more deserving of the treatment. (I still need to pick up MoFi's Blue Hawaii, speaking of.) That's the limited to 500 edition of Eat a Peach by the Allman Brothers. The last album to feature Duanne Allman. RiP, Skydog. Polyphia's latest, Remember That You Will Die, in LE Oxblood Vinyl. Ego Death, with Steve Vai, is enough to warrant the price of admission, but the album is stacked with single-worthy tracks. OG George is still country music the way God intended. Acoustic Sounds recently repressed Boss Tenor by Gene Ammons. If it's still in stock, brother, you could do worse. Jug is a top 5 all-time tenor saxophonist and here he is at some of his best. Speaking of re-releases, this is the first time since 1982 that A Flock of Seagull's debut album has been available in the US. Space Age Love Song is a track that helps define an entire decade, to say nothing of I Ran, obv. And finally, an American 1st pressing of LED Zeppelin II with the Ludwig hot master. Definitive, nuff said. In related news, I upgraded my sonic cleaner with the spin-drying attachment and in-tank filter. Now I can clean 10(!) Records at a time and dry them without touching them. Here it is cleaning Zeppelin II by itself since the filter keeps the water usable after use, I can store the "used" water, which means I don't have to wait to have 30 records or so to justify the water consumption. Looking at the filter after a few runs is eye-opening. This also means I don't have to go through so many Kimtech wipes. The whole process is MUCH less wasteful now. And SIAP, how was this year's Austin Record Convention? I wish I could've made it.

You'd have a hard time convincing me to jump into an Apple-run VR ecosystem at this point. Any other ecosystem than those already established, really.

Badass. Looking forward to hearing you play Playing God.

My setup is the banner pic of the official Emotiva Facebook group. I'm like, what? Loooo

Killer Joe

Visited the Mississippi Delta again and stopped by Dockery Farms. They still play early blues from speakers throughout the property, so you hear this haunting music as you walk around this abandoned plantation and it really sets you on edge. It's eerie as all get out. I recognized Charley Patton's Spoonful Blues, appropriate since this is where he worked while doing his part (and perhaps the single greatest part) to create the blues artform. Son House made an appearance too. Heres the loading docks, where the workers also took breaks and played their instruments, working out the rudiments of a whole new musical language. Just sitting there, where Patton, and later Howlin Wolf, might've sat, looking out over the remnants of a plantation listening 1930s blues, was a powerful moment. The Dockery cotton gin was in remarkable condition, all things considered... Dig these names and countries of origins in the sign-in book. Since I was in the area, I also stopped by Greenwood, Mississippi to visit the man, the myth, the legend at what I think is his most probable final resting place: I was eventually able to find the grave of Rosie Eskridge, the lady who witnessed her husband burying Robert Johnson near the tree his marker currently resides under at Little Zion.

To be fair, no one has said it was good.

Yes. Normalize progress.

I think the success of Andor proves that these small boxes some put Star Wars fans into, or even naming such a group as if they're monolithic, is meaningless. The Mandolorian will fail because it is no longer entertaining the numbers of people it once did - simple as that. It's fate has nothing to do with "Star Wars fans," because that is a group that doesn't exist as such. Disney is having a creative crisis across the board. The current and continued suffering of their Star Wars properties are some of a much longer list of symptoms.

Fart noises.

The Fender Dual Professional reissue is FINALLY up: https://shop.jbonamassa.com/collections/music-equipment-amp/products/48-dual-professional-amp-jb-edition $3500

FInally got the Catan 3D Seafarers & Cities and Knights to the table. Well, not Knights yet, baby steps. I hope they add the 5&6 Player Expansion soon. And the Great Covid Shipping Catchup of 2023 continues. A ton of big boxes, a weakness of mine, arrived. Already played Vindication and Western Legends. Looking forward to Final Girl Season 2 since we had such a blast with season 1. And He-Man hit - All of it. I probably won't be able to tell if this one is a good game or not because I'm so nostalgic for the IP. Dig those throwback boxes on the right! Should crack it open this weekend. It sure would be cool if CMON added big boxes for its games. EDIT: It was just announced that Klaus Tueber, the creator of Catan, has passed away at 70. RIP

Without clicking I new what this bump was about. 😂 But Josh is right, listing that pedal for $650 is not the same as it selling for $650. This story works better as a cautionary tale of how too many guitarists rely too much on popular opinion and not their own ears.

My oldest outstanding Kickstarter just arrived. Really looking forward to starting this and not finishing...

That's the pedal thread's version of those dudes dropping that OG Les Paul and the 60s Strats in the guitar thread. Was this a coordinated effort to drop unobtanium all over the forum?

SIAP Both sound great, but when that second dude drops in...