SNR Fresh Plays: Cornucopia on the Cob with a side of Passive Aggressive Sauce + Fresh "Paints"
Published about 1 month ago • 5 min read
Fresh Plays
Happy Mother's Day to all of the amazing moms out there (including those no longer with us). I'm extremely grateful for my beautiful, amazing, funny, Skip-Bo-loving mom. She's loving, caring, and always so supportive of my brother and me, plus she's an awesome "Grammy T" to my niece and nephew.
For a Fresh "Paints" update, I'm still loving painting miniatures, and how zen I feel when I do. Not only is it addicting and therapeutic, but it's so satisfying when you get to play a game with minis you've painted yourself. I'm so tickled to see them come to life on the game board that I'm not even thinking about strategy or winning (...is what I say to myself when I lose a game).
These are from Black Rose Wars: Rebirth – one of my recent favorite games:
Crocs & Umbras
Cadavers Creepin' on Moon Phases
This mage must have bad karma...
Them Bloody Bears
These Guards of Atlantis II minions are TOUGH. They weren't always...but I fixed that.
Insert < **finger snap** **finger snap**
BOARD GAMES
Star Wars: Outer Rim
What did we do for "May the 4th"? ...played one of Matt's favorite (+ favorite IP!) games with our with our good friends Megan and Sam – and with all of us sportin' SW swag.
Outer Rim is a fun, chill game, and the theme really shines through. I highly recommend the Unfinished Business expansion if you end up getting into this one.
Megan is an awesome artist so I was excited to show her I was getting into painting. Shortly before they arrived, I "figured out" how to use my airbrush and primed a few minis, just in case Megan was down to paint too.So we both ended up painting in between turns while casually playing Outer Rim.
Megan crushed it with these Succubus ladies. (Thanks, Megan!) I added their red eyes, then put a satin varnish on them, and gloss on the ground. Those Succubi(?) are forever going to be special because Megan painted them. More joy from painted minis!
Did you ever read a board game tag line and want to play the game because of it? Right now, you probably don't even realize how much you need to play..."a game of passive aggressive cohabitation." ...but now that you know it exists, don't you want to play it??
Décorum is a clever, puzzly, co-operative game, where 2-4 players work together to re-decorate their house in a way that satisfies everyones needs. The hook is, each player has their own list of "must-haves" that are hidden from other players.
On your turn, you can add, move, or remove a home decor item (3 different types of items of 4 different styles and colors + 4 different paint colors for the walls of each of the 4 rooms in the house)...but you can't tell the other players why you needed to make that change to the house. Then everyone else weighs in on how they feel about it (depending on how it affects their personal preferences):
"I love that!",
"sure, that's fine with me.", or
"How dare you!?! I CANNOT STAND THAT!"
...but of course, they can't share why they reacted the way they did. Because in the world of Décorum, the only response to passive aggressive behavior is a passive aggressive response.
Later in the game, you'll occasionally have house meetings where everyone can share one bit of information with another player. I don't recall how many rounds you have to figure it out, but some of the scenarios are super challenging.
Décorum's tagline ("a game of passive aggressive cohabitation.") holds true. It's incredibly thematic, puzzly, and hilarious...especially when everyone leans into and channels their inner passive aggressive selves. It's challenging too, especially when players simultaneously have an aha moment, but can't quite figure out how to solve the puzzle and rearrange thing before the last round. I love revisiting this one, so I'm glad it spontaneously hit the table last week.
Björk is one of my absolute favorite musicians. Of course, she's more than just a musician. She's one of the most unique and most creative artists in the world. Her live shows are unreal and always amaze me. Last week, on May 7th, she premiered Cornucopia – a live show from her Utopia album tour – in movie theaters worldwide, for one night only. It was awesome to experience this groundbreaking performance on the big screen (although the volume should've been bumped up A LOT more, AMC The Grove 14 🤨🙄).
This show got me back in the mood to revisit all of here albums, so I wanted to share one of my favorite tracks from perhaps my favorite album of hers. I know, I know, how does one pick a favorite album from such a magically talented artist with diverse, spectacular catalogue??? Well, just like Radiohead's In Rainbows has a special place in my heart, so does Biophilia...primarily because it was the album tour that I saw her live for the first time, as was In Rainbows for Radiohead.
Here's an excerpt from Bjork's email announcing Cornucopia, so you have some insight on how and why she blows my mind:
"i spent last decade working with 360-degree sound and visual software in virtual reality and animation, creating Biophilia and later Vulnicura as a VR album . i was deeply inspired by the idea of a fully-immersive experience spreading Utopia and Fossora into fully surround speakers . my intention was to bring what we had created for 21st-century VR into a 19th-century theatre - taking it from the headset to the stage .
this vision was realised with 27 moving curtains that captured projections on different textures and LED screens , creating a digitally animated show : a "modern lanterna magica" for live music . i also wanted to feature bespoke instruments: a magnetic harp , an aluphone , a circular flute , and a reverb chamber , specially built with an audio architect to enhance the most intimate version of a performance—in a personal chapel ."
You never forget your first, right? This string quartet version of Hyperballad put Björk on my radar back in the day. When I was teaching the indoor drumline at my old high school, we would travel and perform shows with the indoor color guard. One of the schools (Parkland?🤔) performing at a lot of the same shows as us had an impressive and captivating indoor color guard show. The performers and the choreography were top notch, but this song is a big part of why show stood out. After loving this song, I started dipping my toes into the sounds of Björk. A lot of her music took me a while to appreciate because a lot of it is so progressive, artsy, and experimental...but also brilliant...absolutely brilliant, as I discovered over the following years.
I'm excited to paint more minis and play more Black Rose: Rebirth. After finally getting to dig into Dungeon Degenerates (discussed on BGG Podcast #68), I'm looking forward trying out more adventure games over the coming months.
Thanks for reading Squawk 'N' Roll: Fresh Plays!
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