Highmoon's Ponderings

In The Digital Front - Episode 12 we chat with Don Dehm of Pulp Gamer Media Network about the history of Pulp Gamer, from podcast to media network, about podcasting, hobby podcasters and pro podcasters, and the place of podcasts in the gaming industry, past, present and future. We also talk about the Evil Hat Retailer PDF Guarantee, a new program from Evil Hat Productions that allows people who buy their products at a brick-n-mortar store to get a free PDF version as well.

Please feel free to discuss this episode on our forums or call our voicemail line at 206-350-4441.

Links:

• Guest: Don Dehm of Pulp Gamer Media Network & The Podcast Advantage
• News: Evil Hat Retailer PDF Guarantee - Evil Hat Productions (contact Fred for info)
• Promos:
  • RPGPodcasts.com
  • Pulp Gamer: Inside Track
  • Goblin - Gaming Broadcast Network

Download TDF - 12

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri 
rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a fantastic novel by a talented writer. To me a good book is characterized by two things: it makes me want to read more from that author, and it makes me want to write as well, reminds me of the magic of the written word. The Namesake accomplishes both.

Anyone who is an immigrant, or can still identify with their immigrant heritage, is sure to connect with the story of the Gangulis, whether they are the immigrants themselves or the first generation of Whatever-American. Lahiri’s simple prose gets to the emotional point of each sentence without making it sappy or heavyhanded; you truly come to care for each member of the family and their own struggle, and especially for Gogol, whom you learn his past and present and surrounding circumstances straight from their own point of view. There is no gimmick here, no surprise revelation, no conspiracy of any sort, just a straightforward story of lives lived between two sides of one self, and the reprecussions of lives split in two, whether the parts are old/young, male/female, Bengali/American, past/future.

After reading The Namesake there is no doubt left why Lahiri is hailed as one of the best new writers in modern American literature, why we suddenly care so much about the lives and dreams of the Bengali-Americans that inhabit her stories: in many ways, they are us, and we are them, and Lahiri is slowly showing that truth one brilliant book at a time.

The LCD monitor on my laptop has gone kaput. The LCD inverter is apparently overheating and both making the screen go black (you can see the desktop, but it’s impossible to work) and creating an expanding burn mark that starts at the lower right corner of the screen and then grows and grows. It seems Dell Inspiron notebooks suffer from this LCD inverter overheating problem, so I have found enough info to diagonse and know what to do to repair. I have already ordered a replacement inverter and I’ll give it a shot at changing it myself, with a visit to my local Geek Squad as my back-up plan.

I can check my mail in my wife’s computer (also a Dell Inspiron, though not as heavily used as mine), but until fixed, I cannot do any work, be it graphics, sales, or podcasting (which sucks, because I was planning and looking forward to sitting down Memorial Day afternoon to edit the next episode of The Digital Front and record the needed parts for the next episode of The Gamer Traveler). Now I’m stuck cleaning around the house. (sigh)

I saw Mira Nair’s film adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake on Saturday night and I thought it was a fantastic film. The story, centering on this Bengali family that moves to America, and the trials and tribulations of the search and struggle for identity–from the Bengali parents looking to fit into American society, and from the first-generation Indian-American children looking to find where exactly they belong–was powerful in its realistic simplicity and extremely resonant with me, even though I am not Indian. Any immigrant, or child of an immigrant, can empathize with the Gangulis, for their struggle is our own.

Yesterday, Mother’s Day, I woke up in a pensive mood. I missed my mom, as she is in Puerto Rico, but more than that, the film had left me thinking about identity, my identity, and there were heavy toughts coursing through the back of my mind, unseen if I had wanted to share them with others, but certainly present in the weight they cast over my mood that morning. I stopped reading The Incredible Adventures of Kavalier and Klay by Michael Chabon, bumping it down to #2, and started to read The Namesake, at my wife’s behest (she did read the novel before seeing the film, so though in her opinion it was indeed a great adaptation, inevitably the novel offers a lot more nuance and depth that makes the story so much more enjoyable, as I am already finding out). The topic has been ignited in my mind, and there is no other recourse for me but to explore it and follow it to its conclusion; I just know myself.

This isn’t new for me. I have discussed issues of identity before, though perhaps not as well as I should have. My entire life has been defined by a battle between clashing identities: I am Puerto Rican, I am American, and I am Jewish as well, but I am a convert, so that brings in a whole other host of issues. To that add being 33, already too old for being “a kid,” but not exactly middle aged either (at least not chronologically speaking, as I hope to live to 120!). In short, I am an identity mess.

I have no idea what I’m gonna do with all this information, all these thoughts and self-reflections, except that lately I have had the yearning to go back to writing stories, something I haven’t done in years at this point. I’ve had some ideas of short vignettes I could write to explore various aspects of what I have been thinking about, so perhaps that’s where I’ll start. I don’t know if they solve my mess or at least be publishable, but perhaps simply the act of writing will help me sort some things out in my head.

Meanwhile I keep reading The Namesake, and greatly enjoying Jhumpa Lahiri’s subdued writing style.

What about you? Even white-bred Americans came from somewhere. Where are you caught? What sides are pulling at you?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HIGHMOON MEDIA PRODUCTIONS TO PRODUCE TRUE20 ANCIENTS

May 12, 2008 (MIAMI BEACH, FL & SEATTLE, WA) — Highmoon Media Productions has reached an agreement with Green Ronin Publishing to produce the new True20 Ancients line of sourcebooks, bringing the critically-acclaimed historical Mythic Vistas settings to the True20 Adventure Roleplaying game. Highmoon Media Productions will act as a design studio for Green Ronin, performing the conversion to True20 of all the game material—done by True20 fan-favorite author Matthew Kaiser—as well as producing the finalized version of the product.

True20 Ancients will bring to the True20 game all the material previously found in Testament: Roleplaying in the Biblical Era, Trojan War: Roleplaying in the Age of Homeric Adventures, and Eternal Rome: Roleplaying in the Age of Gods and Emperors, with some new material added in. The new line will reorganize the information and present it by cultures, making it easy for True20 fans get all the pertinent information for a specific culture in one package.

“I have been a passionate fan of Testament since its release, as well as of Trojan War and Eternal Rome,” said Daniel M. Perez, owner of Highmoon Media Productions. “Green Ronin did a fantastic job with these books, which is why I actively support them via Ancient World Adventures Magazine (formerly Targum) and why I sought to do this project as well. I am delighted that Chris Pramas accepted our proposal and entrusted us with this endeavor. I can’t think of a more fitting project to mark our entry into the world of True20 publishing than True20 Ancients.”

“I’m a big fan of historical gaming,” said Green Ronin President Chris Pramas, “which is one of the reasons we did the Mythic Vistas line in the first place. No one has been a more ardent supporter of that material than Daniel Perez, which makes him the perfect choice to develop True20 Ancients for us. This is great news for fans of True20 and historical gaming.”

True20 Ancients: Rome will be the first book in the line, followed by True20 Ancients: Israel & Canaan, and by the rest of the ancient world cultures presented in the original settings afterwards. True20 Ancients will be available in PDF from the Green Ronin webstore and vendor sites at RPGnow.com and DriveThruRPG.com.

Find out more about True20 Ancients at www.highmoonmedia.com/true20ancients

ABOUT HIGHMOON MEDIA PRODUCTIONS Highmoon Media Productions is a Miami Beach-based e-publisher of gaming products, including Ancient World Adventures Magazine (formerly Targum), a magazine supporting Ancient World campaign settings. Highmoon Media Productions also produces The Gamer Traveler Podcast and The Digital Front Podcast. Learn more about Highmoon Media Productions at www.highmoonmedia.com.

ABOUT GREEN RONIN PUBLISHING Green Ronin Publishing is a Seattle-based company known for its dedication to quality books and games. Founded in 2000, Green Ronin has won more awards for excellence and innovation than any other game company in the new millennium, and took home the coveted ENnie Award for Best Publisher an unprecedented three years running. With great licenses like Thieves’ World and the Black Company, groundbreaking games like Mutants & Masterminds and Blue Rose, and a roster of top flight designers and illustrators, Green Ronin Publishing is a leading light in the hobby game industry. Learn more about Green Ronin at www.greenronin.com.

# # # Highmoon Media Productions Media Contact Daniel M. Perez daniel@highmoonmedia.com

Green Ronin Media Contact Nicole Lindroos nicole@greenronin.com

This episode is going out on both The Gamer Traveler and The Digital Front feeds; my apologies if you get them both.

I had the opportunity and fortune to fly out to Las Vegas, Nevada to attend the GAMA Trade Show 2008, April 20-24 (though I was there April 22-24). There I was able to see a lot of the new games coming out this year, demo some of them, and talk to a lot of industry folks about the current state of gaming and the future of our hobby and industry. I hope you enjoy the report.

For more GTS audio reports, check out Pulp Gamer: Out of Character, Pulp Gamer: Inside Track with Anthony Gallela, the OgreCave Audio Report, and the combined episode of 2d6 Feet in a Random Direction and That’s How We Roll.

Check out photos of GTS and Las Vegas on Flickr.

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