Frikin' Lazers

I suppose that at this point, some would consider me too old for lazer tag, that as I'm going to college, I should move past novelty shooting games. But that's what they said when I trick or treated at 15, too, and I had a really good haul that year. Also I plan to start a Nerf club at college.

Luckily for me, many of my good friends are with me on this, which is how I found myself at a midnight to 7 a.m. lazer tag session last night in Fall River, Massachusetts.

Fall River is widely known as one of the sketchiest towns in MA; as my friend Jonny suggested, second only to Dorchester. Some of it's city planning was bizarre enough to remind me of Africa. It's the kind of place where, hypothetically, if a group of buddies went and one of them went to Walgreens to pick up a disposable camera unnanounced, the others would be significantly upset with him. They thought I was killed or something.

The lazer tag facility is in an old mill, behind a McDonald's, marked by absolutely zero signage. Neither the parking lot or the building show any indication of housing a lazer tag arena. You can only find out about it if you know the right people. It's kind of a thrill, actually knowing that you've stumbled upon and now have connections with the lazer tag underground. But despite its meager exterior, and to a lesser extent its interior, it's know as the lazer tag place, enough so to make us trek an hour, passing three other options, to get to.

With the group deal, I was pretty thrilled that 35 bucks would get me unlimited lazer tag and arcade games for seven hours, but when I found out that also included pizza, three drinks and Dunkin Donuts donuts, I actually felt bad. At that point it seemed like theft.

It was a pretty fantastic time. It was suggested that the head employee may have been under some influences, as they say, but he seemed like a really nice guy. It's an involved arena, too, with two stories of ample space (although only the n00bs use the first floor), and it kept us going for a good seven hours of early mornin' lazerin'.

Major props to Mack and Dave for overcoming insane heat, transportation for 30 people, and a couple of ditching jerks to throw a wicked awesome party.

And for the record, I'm not being paid for each time I say lazer tag.


-Will


"Why is my thumb shaking?" --Bond, at 5 a.m.

The Boy Who Stayed Awake

I'm sitting right now in a sea of fandom, at the last midnight launch of a Harry Potter movie in the foreseeable future, 15 minutes before "it all ends." Going to the midnight launch of anything has to be one of the most unique experiences in life. No where else do I know can you find such a raw, unadulterated sea of obssession as the earliest possible moment to watch a movie.

Someone just screamed "Harry Potter! Woo!" and got a significant response from the crowd. There's a 40-year old man with a fake beard and a cloak sitting across from me. There were two girls dressed up as snitches outside, complete with "I open at the close" shirts. Even the workers have orange-red and silver-green scarves. I had no idea this many Hogwarts house ties were even in existence. The people without wands are the losers.

And although I somewhat disdain this movie for starting the trend of splitting a movie into two 10+ dollar tickets, I'm sad it's the last, really. Even the fact that this is the last time to get Potter merch without having to back-order it has me feeling a little nostalgic. It's the end of an era, or at least the beginning of the end of it. The movies have been decent, but man those books are gold. Since others have written much better and more meaningful tributes than I, I'll keep it short and leave you with my favorite quote of the movie, bar "NOT MY DAUGHTER...!" In the wise words of Albus Dumbledore:

"Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it." --Albus Dumbledore


-Will