Meantime, I’ll be watching a pickup-truck-load of “Justified” in preparation for the start of season 3 next week. I obtained the S1 DVDs a while back, and finished them earlier this week. An alert from a friend clued me in to S2 reruns airing in the wee hours on FX, so I’ve got those locked down on the DVR. Just a few more hours of mountain justice to watch, and I’ll be all caught up. I’ve been spinning the final season of “24″ in here on the small TV while I play Star Wars this week, but that’s such a half-assed season, it’s mostly just background noise. Must see it through to completion, though. It is inconceivable that I didn’t do so when it originally aired.

NP :: White Rabbits - “Heavy Metal”

Anyway, good folks, timely arrival. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? Before and during the film: nothing! We met up with Kevin, saw a few other friends in the house, and enjoyed a delightful romp across Europe and Africa via mo-cap and magical COM-PU-TOR ANIMATIONS with some great voice talent to boot. Really a fun movie, and the action sequences are huge and thrilling and much more than I was hoping for. 4/5 stars, I think?

LEAVING, though, OH, YOU WANT TO LEAVE THE MALL OF GEORGIA? One does not merely drive out of the Mall of Georgia. One gets in one’s car, pulls out into the access road around the mall, and sits there for about a half an hour without ever making it out to an actual street. Yep.

Horrifyingly long story short(er), we eventually gave up on our plan of getting on 85S, heading home, and stopping at the highly-recommended Umaido for ramen on the way down. That was not to be. I broke West, got us out of sight of the All-Seeing Eye of Sauron atop the MoG, and pulled into the parking lot of Lee’s Golden Buddha a couple of miles away. It had been about two hours since the end of the movie by now. It was almost 2pm, and we hadn’t had any lunch. MANY PLATES of foods were ordered. Much eating was done. The long drive home was begun.

In the end, our little trip to see a free movie took almost eight hours, and a third of a tank of gas.

The movie was great, though, and I think my friends have a new respect (or fear) of the capacity for awful traffic in the ‘burbs. #mallofgeorgiatrafficjam2011

We all vowed together: Never again, Mall of Georgia. Never again.

NP :: Reverend Horton Heat - “We Three Kings”

If you’ve played any KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC or MASS EFFECT or even DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS, there will be familiar aspects. Bioware knows their trade, and they aren’t straying too far from their previous, delicious recipes here.

I haven’t been able to explore the social aspects of the game too much yet; I’ve grouped for a couple of missions, but that was just with a party of two or three, and even then, there was no large amount of co-op going on. Just acknowledgement that we probably needed more than one gun to take out those things that looked like smallish, green Rancors (we did).

As a solo jam, though, it’s still fun. Good writing, solid voice acting, and a nice diversity of characters so far. Does that make it worth the monthly fee? Not so sure about that. I think it would be worth the purchase price and the likely free month they include to start a character or two, enjoy some of the storylines, and explore the world a bit.

I would need to see EA/Bioware pump out a significant amount of content over the course of a year to keep me paying a monthly fee.

We shall see. Maybe they will do just that!

NP :: Cults - “Bad Things”

Best Eavesdropped Detail: They had set Bill Sienkiewicz up with a nice room at the Hyatt, but for no apparent reason, withdrew that offer, and gave the room to Mickey Thomas of STARSHIP. Bill ended up staying down by the airport.

Most Dapper Gentleman in Comics: STERANKO. Forever. Jeeez, what a dude. Comics great, tough guy, escape artist, and he designed Indiana Jones’ costume as we know it today. I bought a copy of NICK FURY, AGENT OF SHIELD for him to sign, and talked about movie tough guys for 10 minutes or so. Definite con highlight.

[More To Come]

Here ya go, and there are more to come!

I’m currently onboard Airtran flight 101 to DFW. Why go to Texas when it is so dang hot out there? I’m gonna see some movies! Not just any movies, though. This year’s Rolling Roadshow features a brace of flicks set in the Lone Star State, and I am catching the first three of the series.

THE SEARCHERS - Shown at Ft. Parker near Waco, where the initial raid in the film took place.

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE - Shown at the actual house from the film! Near Austin.

BLOOD SIMPLE - Shown at the music hall in Austin where the bar scenes in the film were shot. Coens… YES.

BONUS:

THE IRON GIANT - Which I get to watch with Mr. Keen and his younglings at the Drafthouse in Katy. This is an all-time favorite film, so, YES!

Pretty excited. If you’re in TX and I haven’t gotten in touch, give a holler! Tacos for all!

NP :: Alice in Chains - “I Stay Away” (thx, in-flight XM!)

Caught his show at the EARL last night, and now I’m listening to the new album (via the fancy new Amazon Cloud Voodoo Music System). I had planned to catch his in-store at Criminal yesterday afternoon and pick up a signed copy then, but work wasn’t lettin’ me go anywhere near early, so, yeah, MP3s will do.

Yeah, anyway, this post sat in an unsaved .txt file on my desktop all day long. Guess I’ll post it up before I leave.

Busy weekend around Atlanta, folks. Get out and enjoy some of it.