Not Art Issue 5 on sale now!

Just under the wire (pictured), my subscribers have been sent their November issues of Not Art. Non subscribers will have to rely on finding one of the copies I've put aside for dropping off in Los Angeles comedy theaters or selling as back issues. 

New subscribers have the opportunity to join at the following levels of interest:

• $3 - a hand-numbered copy of each new issue delivered to your home by the US Postal Service.
• $4 - a hand-numbered copy of each issue, delivered to your home by the US Postal Service, except you start at issue #1! Relive the whole thrilling experience of our first few months!
• $5 - a hand-numbered edition of your choosing of each new issue delivered to your home by the US Postal Service.
• $XX - a hand-numbered copy of each new issue delivered to your home by the US Postal Service, and your first delivery includes a copy of every back issue! (This becomes more expensive each month!)
• $26 - eBook edition. You receive an electronic copy of my physical chapbook / zine project each month, and also one physical copy is destroyed each month. 

There's a real struggle between adding dozens of mildly amusing subscriber tiers and making the whole page too complicated for anyone to care about. I suspect that on the battleground of this internal conflict, I am losing. 

(Also, there is no cover sketch video this month because I used a different method to create this month's cover.)

Escape Room Reviews: The Norcross Art Gallery

Company: Evil Genius Escape Rooms
Room: The Norcross Art Gallery
Date Played: 11/24/17
Player Count: 2
Success:  Hint-free Success!

Premise: Having just fled the scene of Occam’s Apartment, agent X informs you that the art gallery may contain vital clues regarding the Evil Genius. And it does!

Immersion: This room totally looks like it belongs in a museum. Art abounds! Also, while this is not a scary room / experience, this might be the only room I’ve seen so far that has a genuinely creepy aspect to it.

Highlights: So often I want to complain about rooms that are little more than a collection of weird interaction devices someone built, lining the walls for no particular reason. But an art gallery is the perfect excuse to cover the walls with things that need the players’ attention. It’s a brilliant idea. Likewise the self-guided tour is a gimmick that is more fun and makes so much more sense than the increasingly common diaries and journals that are practically room walkthroughs. There’s a turn in the middle that I thought was pretty funny.

Lowlights: I don’t know if I have anything to complain about. I loved the theme, the puzzles all made sense to me (eventually) and we didn’t have to call for help, nothing was worn out or broken. There may have been a puzzle I didn’t understand, but if so that’s just because my partner solved it. 

And Finally:  I had read other reviews online that said this room was a let down after Evil Genius’s fantastic first part. I’m so glad I don’t agree. Everything about this was a delight. Like the Laboratory, I could imagine wanting to replay this (or to do the continuous experience offered here: playing both rooms as one big game) in the future, just for the enjoyment of physically running through it all again. I revisit some games like The Room series about once a year, and I could see doing the same with the cream of the live action adventure game crop. Keeping a numeric list is a crazy thing to do in the first place, but ranking my A+ rooms against each other is even more difficult. For today, out of 38 games played, I’m ranking this one at #3. I think I may have found it more satisfying than Occam's Apartment, but I think you should play that one first. 

How to book this room yourself: Visit http://www.evilgeniusescaperooms.com/our-rooms/

#2,407: Justice League

Roman J. Israel, Esq. - ★★★☆☆
Feels a little like Denzel’s Monster, he's out to win some prizes. I kind of wouldn’t’ve minded seeing the ‘before’ picture, where Roman Israel just does a lot of skillful lawyering.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - ★★★½☆
I think this is a movie that wants to remind us to imagine others complexly, and that's a reminder we could really use right now. Maybe all the time, but also right now.

Sometimes, I think I review the advertising instead of the picture. After all, I've probably logged more time watching the trailer for Three Billboards this year than I did watching the film. I'm really glad there was more substance to the movie than what was on display, and that kind of sums up the whole thing.

Justice League - ★★☆☆☆
I try to be an optimist, but DC doesn’t make it easy.

Diana: I like that she spams her finishing move all over the place. It's like the ‘why not start with the giant robot’ problem. But she seems dumber now–like I know we have to keep referring to ‘a pilot she once knew’ because someone in a meeting gave a note that JL should tie into the other movies more, but from her perspective he died a hundred years ago. They only spent a week together. I think it's fair for her to move on.

Superman: Some of the whedonisms were even more jarring than in Avengers because we’ve already established these characters, and Zach Snyder’s Superman isn’t particularly jokey. There’s room for all kinds of supermen, but please pick one.

Most of the time in a Superman movie, there’s never a sense of just how strong he is. Is it difficult to catch a space shuttle? Or to lift an island into space? It's great that we see him casually flying that building around just before doing something he finds difficult.

Also, raising the dead is surprisingly simple!

Flash: He's the fun thing in the movie, much more appropriate as a Whedon-y character. I liked when they did that super-speed scene from X-Men, and the race scene. The first time, at least. Why would you put it in the movie twice?

Cyborg: in the interest of brevity, he sucks.

GL: I was wrong. I thought this movie was going to pull an Iron Man Three-style double bluff where *obviously* Superman comes back, but that distracts all the nerds from the real reveal - The introduction of one of the space heroes halfway through the movie. Preferably a Green Lantern whose interest is piqued by Darkseid’s bad behavior. We had a GL in a flashback, but that’s not the same. I bet he was in an earlier script though. Otherwise, unite the seven what? It's not seas. This is not a movie about the sea. Aquaman, while present, didn't even have a character.

The Ninth Annual Los Feliz Invitational

This week, Gangbusters! is proud to host the final round of the ninth annual Los Feliz Invitational, the most prestigious festival in all of Los Feliz!

Thrill as Holston and Rogers defend their title and the Los Feliz Cup against the likes of NASA, Toil & Trouble, Young Coconut Ceviche, Slush, Maral Adams, Frankie G, Geoff Plitt, Josia Elliot, and noted Electric Light Orchestra enthusiast Courtney Karwal at 11pm on November 24th at The Clubhouse in the heart of Los Angeles' cult district, Los Feliz! Hang on to the edge of your seats as the Box of Judges looks deep into our performers' souls and assigns them terrific awards and fantastic prizes!

Or spend the weekend with your family, I guess.

#2,404: Murder on the Orient Express

LBJ - ★★½☆☆
This is the Greatest Hits of Lyndon Johnson. All the things you know about him. All the popular quotes and stories. You’re welcome, high school history teachers.

The Whole Truth - ★½☆☆☆☆
Forgettable despite the barrage of Shocking Twists.

Murder on the Orient Express - ★★½☆☆
It’s still technically period, but the story has been wrung through a modernizer, maybe one borrowed from Guy Ritchie. We’ve got new scenes to demonstrate Poirot’s badassery, and much fancier exteriors. It does make me want to go watch the Lumet version again.