Back in LA: NBA Finals, My E3 Experiences, East-Coast Wrap-Up, and MORE!

Wow, it's been awhile.

So ... let's see, last I wrote, I was still in CT, having just returned from a midweek excursion to the Big Apple. That was last Thursday. After that, I relaxed on Friday, went to a shabbat dinner at our synagogue in Bloomfield, and played videogames until way too late into the night. Then, Saturday was a big day - my ten-year high school reunion. I met up with my old high school buddy Matt S. for a quick pre-reunion dinner, and then headed over to the campus of Kingswood-Oxford for the big event. It was definitely strange being back at my old high school. I was briefly there for my brother's graduation in 2004 - other than that, I haven't been back in years. There were a lot of fancy new buildings, although the whole place seemed smaller than I remembered as a teenager. At the same time, a lot of memories definitely flooded back as I walked on the green and past the various buildings. Meanwhile, I had no idea what to expect from the actual event. I had these visions of everyone sitting at some long table and trying awkwardly to make polite conversation. Luckily, the event was nowhere near as stuffy as I feared. We were all packed into the dining hall alongside other class reunions, but there was a festive atmosphere in the room and everyone was super friendly. Lots of jokes about old teachers and whatnot, although there were some teachers actually there and it was nice to see them as well. Seriously though, I had a blast seeing old faces, and everyone seemed to be doing really well for themselves. Lots of people married or engaged, which was cool yet scary, and everyone mostly looked similar as in high school. Obviously in this day and age of Facebook, it's easier to keep track of people, meaning you get less big surprises than you would have back in the day. But, the X-factor for me was less about how people would look and more about what the overall vibe would be at the reunion. The good news was that it was a really fun night - we took the party from K-O to a nearby bar in West Hartford center, and overall it was a memorable evening, even if it starting absolutely pouring rain right as we were getting ready to leave. It was really cool to see a group of a few dozen people, all of whom were probably in different cliques or whatever in high school, hanging out together and sharing jokes and reminiscing about old times. A good time - I'm glad I was able to attend.

So that was last Saturday. Sunday, my grandparents came over for a brunch / lunch, and then, my brother and I began our long journey back to Burbank. I listened to the entire third season of the Ricky Gervais Show podcast on my iPod, and, dozens of oddball Karl Pilkington anecdotes and musings later, I was back in California. Upon returning, I realized that my cable box was fried (and, apparently, on the verge of exploding). Otherwise, my apartment was mostly in good shape.


All in all, it was a great trip back east. I saw my parents and grandparents and family friends. I saw friends in CT and in NYC, attended my 10-year KO reunion, and had at least a couple of delectable slices of east-coast pizza.


- Of course, Sunday evening our flight prevented us from seeing the Celtics game, but I watched the highlights a couple of times on my computer. That was an awesome win for the C's. Tuesday night was a different story, as I ran home from the E3 convention in downtown LA, swarmed by Lakers fans, only to discover when I finally got back to Burbank that the Celtics were down by like 30 points, and in the process of getting annihilated by the Lakers. Ugh. Still, the one upside to the Celtics' loss is that it means that we got a Game 7 - a rarity in the NBA Finals. A Game 7 gave the series that extra bigtime feel, and here in LA, fans were going nuts for the Lakers. I was obviously rooting for Boston to crush the Lakers, but I definitely was also the first to admit that the game could have gone either way. And what happened? It was a grinding, ultra-physical game that ultimately saw the Lakers come out on top. The Celtics had momentum going into the second half, thanks to some truly tenacious D, but, soon into the third quarter, I could sort of tell that the Celtics were headed for a fall. Pierce and Rondo looked worn out and exhausted, and Ray Allen couldn't buy a bucket yet again. All three were playing tough defense, but really nothing was popping on the offensive end. In the fourth quarter, the Celtics made a couple of hail Mary plays to to keep them in the game, but Kobe, Gasol, and Artest were just too much. Boston had no consistent offense whatsoever, and they just seemed to run out of gas. Still, I give the Celtics team credit for playing hard and for even getting this far in the first place. They certainly defied expectations and had an outstanding run in the playoffs. I still can't stand the Lakers and Kobe in particular, but they were definitely the NBA's best team this year, and Kobe is still the NBA's most singular superstar, even if he is oh-so-easy to hate. Congrats to the true-blue Laker fans out there, but to all the bandwagoners ... let's see how you feel about the Lakers in a few years when it's time for them to rebuild. I don't hate LA sports in general, I just strongly dislike this current incarnation of the Lakers. Maybe one day I'll come around. But, I enjoyed watching this Celtics team. From Big Baby to Rondo to Ray Allen, from Pierce to (dammit all) Scalabrini, they had heart. And even though no one thought they'd advance into the playoffs or make it to the Finals, they proved that coach Rudy T's famous saying was correct: "never underestimate the heart of a champion."


E3


- What? Did I say E3?! Indeed I did. This week was all about the Electronic Entertainment Expo, aka the mecca of all things videogames, aka heaven on earth for anyone who's ever wielded a joystick. And, praised-be-Mario, I was able to attend a lot of this year's festivities. Honestly, going to E3 is one of the coolest things I've ever been able to do. It's frustrating trying to talk about it with those who aren't in the loop, because they don't quite understand that those of us who grew up with games in the 90's basically dreamt about going to E3. Every year, I'd eagerly turn through the pages of GamePro and Diehard Gamefan to read their E3 reports, and I'd marvel at the pictures of the monolithic booths and read, wide-eyed, about all the new games and consoles and other surprises at the show. So, to actually attend E3 and walk around the show floor and attend some of the press conferences ... it was definitely me being in total geek nirvana. Sensory overload, to be sure, in the best way possible.

My first E3 experience this year actually came on Monday night, just one day removed from flying back to LA from CT. Suffice it to say, I was exhausted. But, how could I pass up an opportunity to attend a sure-to-be-insane party thrown by Microsoft in honor of their new KINECT motion-control device (formerly known as Natal). So, my friend Kyle and I drove to the Galen Center at USC's downtown LA campus for what would surely be an epic event.

Turns out, epic doesn't even begin to describe it. We stood in line with all sorts of interesting videogame industry and media industry people, and while in line, we were surrounded by all manner of crazy Cirque de Soleil people dressed in native, jungle-style garb, playing drums, doing acrobatics, etc. So far, so good.

But, when we got inside, well, that's when things got wonky. Everyone who entered the arena was given a white poncho to wear - like something that you might wear if you were in an alien cult about to be taken up to the mothership. Okay ... this was getting pretty weird. Then, we sat in the arena, and waited for something to happen. And waited. And waited some more. For a full hour, Cirque de Soleil performers performed little tricks in the audience and entertained us in a sort of pre-show, but everyone in the arena was getting tired and impatient and probably hungry as well. When was the actual show going to begin?! Finally, after that hour long wait, the lights dimmed and the show began. And, holy lord, it might have been the weirdest and most mind-boggling display of ostentatious advertising-as-performance-art I've ever seen. For a mind-numbing hour and half, what seemed to be the most expensive and artiest commercial ever made played out in front of us. Wood nymphs danced around and bowed before a giant, spherical XBOX logo that descended from the rafters. A melodramatic intro played, describing how, "from the dawn of time," man had struggled to master machinery, and how Kinect was the turning point in human evolution in which machines would finally cater and adapt to the whims of man. A young boy climbed up the gian XBOX sphere and up a mountain and found himself in a suspended, futuristic living room that rotated and spun above us, affixed in the middle of a giant wheel. Inside the living room, a family that looked half-robot and not-quite-human played all sorts of motion-control Kinect games, as the wood nymphs danced below in tune with their movements. Giant video screens that circled the arena projected the games that were being played, as blaring music that sounded like stuff they'd pump into a Disneyland ride-meets-the music of Blue Man Group, blared from the speakers. Each new experience and game was treated with such pomp and circumstance, with flying acrobats and video effects and bombastic music, that you'd think you were witnessing the second coming of Jesus. As the show reached its apex, curtains were dropped from the ceiling, revealing that several ADDITIONAL living rooms were suspended from the rafters, each containing a similarly eerie nuclear family (each from a different ethnicity, of course). There were giant puppet elephants, people flying, walking on ceilings. At one point, a giant Disney logo flashed as Tinkerbell flew around the arena, for no apparent reason. And the ponchos? Their reason for being was that, at a few points during the course of the show, the big shoulder pads in the ponchos were remotely lit up, forming hundreds of glowing green X's in the crowd. Wow. I had never in my life seen anything like this, and the whole crowd was seemingly in a smiliar state of shock, awe, and confusion. Craziness.

Anyways, the next day, Tuesday, I got to go with some work colleagues to E3 proper during the show's first official day. It was a crazy/awesome scene in downtown LA, with giant banners promoting new games, and a general sense of fun and excitement in the air. I have been to a couple of other "trade shows" but E3 is definitely the best. There's a minimum of stuffy corporate types. Instead, the convention center is overflowing with people who love games. People with passion. People who cheer and boo at press conferences, who proudly brand themselves as hardcore gamers, who are happy to be surrounded by others who share their passion. I said this last year, but I do wish that E3 could find a way to be open to the public. It already has a Comic-Con vibe, why not blow it open and make it equally for the fans?

So, our first stop on Tuesday, after picking up our badges, was the big Sony press conference at the Shrine auditorium. Hey, I've been a Sony fanboy since middle school and the PS1, so I was uber-psyched to attend. While there weren't any games shown that rocked my socks in the same way that Uncharted 2 and God of War III did last year, there was still a ton of cool stuff on display. Some quick highlights included Sorcerer, a cool looking motion-control game for Sony's Playstation Move peripheral, and of course, Twisted Metal, a revamp of the Playstation classic for the PS3. The new game was introduced in grand fashion, with the game's notorious ice-cream truck vehicle driven onto the stage, with a gang of evil clowns at the wheel. Awesome. A couple of other game reveals, like Infamous 2, Portal 2, and Little Big Planet 2 were also really kickass.

But, the real highlight of the press conference was Sony's famous pitchman, KEVIN BUTLER. The fake "CEO of Everything" made a surprise appearance on stage and delivered an absolutely awesome / hilarious speech that took some funny digs at the competition (including Microsoft's white ponchos from the previous night), and then transitioned into a funny yet surprisingly impassioned rant about gaming. Kevin was a mouthpiece for many of the longtime gamers in the audience who were feeling jaded by motion controls and 3D and such. Kevin B did something that many have been afraid to do - he defended gaming as we know it today. Because all of these new devices imply that there might be something inherently wrong with the way videogames have always been. But to those of us who have grown up loving the feeling of sitting on a couch with a controller in our hand, and diving deep into a great new game, Kevin preached the gospel. Great stuff.

After the press conference, we headed back to the LA Convention Center to walk the E3 show floor. There was so much to take in, it was overwhelming. Sights and sounds everywhere, and even aside from the games themselves, there was a lot to see - a wrestling ring set up with lucha libre fighting going on, G4's crew broadcasting live from the show, tons of booth babes (including a caged zombie bikini girl promoting Capcom's Dead Rising 2), lots of big music and dance game demos, celebrity sightings, and much more. Unfortunately, some of the big ticket items had incredibly long lines to gain access to. The craziest line was definitely at the Nintendo booth, where there was a multi-hour wait to get your hands on the new 3DS - the 3D update to the huge-selling DS portable system. Meanwhile, some companies like Lucasarts and Activision had no booths on the show floor, and only demo'd their new games (like Star Wars Force Unleashed 2) behind closed doors to the press. Still, there were hundreds of cool looking new games to take a look at and play. From Marvel vs. Capcom 3 to Twisted Metal to Zelda. I spent the afternoon walking the show floor and trying to take in as much as I could. And of course, I snapped a lot of photos.

I'll do a follow-up post soon going into more detail with my E3 thoughts, including my picks for games of the show. So keep an eye out for that.

I also have some long-gestating movie and TV reviews ... this week has been crazy though - between getting back in the swing of things at work and E3 and the NBA Finals, I haven't even fully unpacked yet from my east coast trip.

That said, it's good to be back in LA. Keep reading!