Lately I ran out of stuff to watch. I was finished with Black Books and Spaced (both highly recommended) and needed something else. There's nothing on German TV worth watching for more than ten years by now - and even the US formats aren't that great. So I turned on Amazon and found some deal I simply had to take: Monty Python's Flying Circus, the complete DVD Box for about $25 bucks. It came with several warnings about it using mature language and featuring nudity. What.
I had to show my ID card to the UPS guy who assumed I ordered some sort of fetish pornography. Meanwhile the mail guy was preparing another package for my neighbours (a heavy one with a shed picture on it), which I had to accept as well, since those were gone and that's what you do for neighbours in rural Germany - get the mail and give them to them when they were back. He took back this electronic signing device and asked what my name was as he couldn't read it properly. That's when I told him it was Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson. The most amazing thing happened: he looked around our garden and said "In spite of the fact that you have only one?". Well, needless to say we chatted for another five minutes before he took off, also wondering why Monty Python would need an age limitation and an ID confirmation.
Occasions like these are great and it always baffles me how few of my friends and peers actually know Monty Python. If you do not know it yet, that's what this blog is all about.
I refuse to use the word "comedians" when it comes to Monty Python, as I images of German "comedians" (use it as insult) like Stefan Raab or Oliver Pocher pop up in my mind. Regardless, the "comedian" group was founded in 1969, more than 40 years ago, by John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam and Eric Idle (+ Carol Cleveland). All of them are brilliant writers and actors. Apparently before that time most of them wrote several jokes for other British shows, including children's TV; the exceptions were Cleese and Gilliam. The first one was already more or less known as actor, the latter was American and responsible for other parts of the Pythons. Their show "Flying Circus" was a new form of comedy and was highly popular in the 70es, even though nobody at the BBC apparently knew what they were doing until it was too late to stop it.
It's hard to explain why Monty Python is funny or what the show was about, as it followed no line whatsoever. Some of their sketches had no real punch line, no climax and the clips used really obscure animated transitions (done by Gilliam). Sometimes you can't laugh because it's too absurd, sometimes you laugh and you have no idea why. It really was and still is a form of humor I haven't seen anywhere else. In Germany the only thing that ever came close to Python level was Vicco von Bülow (Loriot), since he as well used broken communication as a method to entertain the masses (but from a different point of view).
Most know Monty Python for two of their four movies: Either Monty Python and the Holy Grail or Life of Brian. That's a bit of a problem, as both movies feature a story line, something which went missing in the original show and the other two movies. Almost everyone knows Eric Idle's song (The Bright Side of Life), yet few know that's the ending of Life of Brian. Easter's coming up, so watch it.
If I had to rank the films, I'd recommend to start with Life of Brian, it's easily the best comedy ever made. It's all about religion and how fanatics make the worst of it. Many Christians make the mistake to assume it features the life of Jesus Christ when it clearly doesn't (-> e.g. the Bishop of Southwark in 1979); it's about a fictional character called Brian, who's slowly made into the Messias by random people following him. It critizes so many things without you actually realizing it until you're in the middle of it: Politics, Teachers, Religion, Society and so on and so forth.
The second is the Holy Grail. Yet again, top notch comedy, picturing the quest of King Arthur trying to find the holy grail. It has it lengths, less criticism and the story is broken compared to Life of Brain, but understandable enough compared to the TV Series. Maybe the best acting ever from Chapman, also brilliant directing by Gilliam and Jones to create the atmosphere.
Third there'd be "The Meaning of Life". This one definitely has it lengths, less memorable moments (compared to the Black Night or Romanus Eunt Domus respectively), then again more relevant parts for today's banking scandals. The pre-film is great shit, even though I didn't quite understand it when I first watched it at the age of 14. I also liked the part of "Death" at the end.
If you'd only go after the entertainment value the first cinematic movie - And Now For Something Completly Different - would have to be ranked 3rd and Meaning of Life 4th. Thena gain, it's only a highlight compilation of the best sketched of the first two seasons of "Flying Circus"; so no, it's fourth, you won't see anything new, sadly.
As for the sketches itself goes, here's my Top 10. I know you shouldn't do it, but nevermind...
+ Show Spoiler [10] +Society of putting things on top of other things If you ever experienced quirky, self righteous hobby groups in small towns/villages, you can relate to the clip
+ Show Spoiler [9] +Raymond Luxury Yacht. If you have a name you have to spell it out.
+ Show Spoiler [8] +Silly Job Interview. Well, no need for words.
+ Show Spoiler [7] +Spam. Ever wondered where the word comes from?
+ Show Spoiler [6] +Self defense against fruits - example as to why Python is awesome
+ Show Spoiler [5] +Multiple Murder - goes like #6
+ Show Spoiler [4] +Sheep - as to why it's not "uneducated" humor
+ Show Spoiler [3] +Pearl Harbour - Short but great
+ Show Spoiler [2] +Parrot Sketch - timeless classic, best use of a thesaurus ever
+ Show Spoiler [1] +Philosopher Football - if you ever had to endure anything related to philosophy, when you really didn't want to, or when you really don't care for football. My favourite's Marx and Beckenbauer.
So TL;DR if you don't know Monty Python go out and watch it immediately. It's quite possible you won't know like all of their stuff, sometimes you'll end up wondering what the heck you just saw (especially Graham's animations), but there's also a high chance it'll grow on you. It wasn't a conincidence that the Pythons used to get into tons of controversities and that so many people argued about it.
If you're already a fan of Monty Python, I suggest you check some of Terry Jones' works, e.g. the documentaries on medi evil Britain. I was told that Palin's some sort of tourism coverage god, but I did not manage to watch his shows yet.
P.S. The Monty Python DVD Box was shit when it cames to package, it broke the second I opened it. The content's great though!
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A few weeks ago  Largo told me via Skype to check out his and RUS_Brain's new game YourLetters. To be honest, it sounds as exciting as watching a political debate about the new tax regulations on chicken imports - not at all, except you're a farmer in the middle of nowhere. As it happens, I was kinda in the middle of nowhere on holiday and had nothing better to do. Also, if you played Brood War, you're kinda obliged to test anything these two kind Russians ask you to, just for the sake of it. Both sponsored and organized tons of events in the past four years, both entertained me personally with either amusing blogs or good posts.
Turns out YouLetters, advertised as some sort of Scrabble-Chess hybrid, was far, far better than I anticipated. It was - and is - a ton of fun, despite it being in some sort of Beta testing phase. The explanation sounds dry, as I just mentioned, but it isn't. You basically start out on a board with five letters per line / seven lines in total. Now it's up to you to conquer new letters by building words and anagrams out of it. The more letters you won, the better. You can lose letters if your opponent uses them for own words, then they turn neutral again; so you have to fight for every single tile once the game progresses. It really puts you under pressure, not only if your English is as poor as mine, but especially since you only have one minute (now) to come up with stuff. Back when it was released you had 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Hence, strategical thinking comes in handy, it's really a bit like chess. You need to concentrate hard if your opponent isn't daft or unexperienced. Moreso, the letters are under a fog of war if you can't reach them, making it harder for you to plan ahead. You have to play through several options while preparing your next move.
Needless to say, I do suck at the game, at least that's what my statistics suggest: I stagnate around 30% win ratio. Well, I also had the luck to play the best five players constantly, so it's a bit relative... hopefully.
What, right now, really blows is that only few people play it. My super secret sources suggest this will change on monday. But why wait until monday? Join the dark side people. Really do give this game a try.
Battle Report - Last Tournament
The last tournament was advertised around here by Brain himself. Sadly, only eight people signed up and played, among them #1 and #2 of the ranking. You still had 2,5 minutes to make your turn, which turned out to definitely not play into my hands. I was kinda scared, an unfamiliar feeling, given how many clan wars and tournament games I played in the past twelve years in Brood War. I know Largo would particularly ridicule me if I played like an idiot, so there was the urge to dodge an emberassing defeat.
My first opponent (Round of 8) was some Danish guy with the nick sander.hansen.58. His stats gave me hope, he was 2-5 in total. However, his five losses came from another player, who I played twice - and lost badly (yo L_Master) twice. So, better not underestimate him. Turns out, this was the easiest game I played so far, hansen wasn't so experienced after all. He tried some sort of rush towards my lines, using two letter words like "OR"and "EX". You really shouldn't do that, but more on the theory later. I eventually one after 22 moves and eight minutes of total playing time - this can be considered as really fast win; the winning word was "IS".
In the semis I faced the guy who dealt crippling losses to me and hansen - DatA, another Dane. By now I played him like 100 times (at least that's what it feels like) and that guy is just a bit too good for me. Keep in mind I did not want to have an emberassing defeat added to my profile and avoid a bad defeat at any cost. With this mind I went into the game and... failed hard. It really kept me awake for a minute longer than it used to that night.
The Battle Report
To fully understand the game I need to explain a few things. All tiles/letters with blue background are "mine", the ones in red are "his", the ones with white background are "neutral" - which means they don't belong to anybody. Your starting line letters have a star in the top right corner, which means you must not let them be conquered. They might turn neutral in the game, that is fine, but if they turn into the enemy's color you're fucked and you automatically lost. You can rebuild the starting line three times, if you spawned with like Q Q Q Q Q or something.
At this point you have to plan ahead a little already. You don't want to start with vowels only or letters like K, Q, X and Z multiple times, at the same time not without any vowels at all - preferred vowels would be E and A, then I, O and U. The letters S, N and R are particularly great, also D and G can help out. Anyhow, in the long run you should have a great variety of letters, but that's kind of "mid to late game" material. I sound so pro, but I'm newb. OMFG #justgeckothings
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/LzocU3z.png) My starting lines
We already learned that the first few words are somewhat important, but not crucial. You can still manage to drive back your opponent if you have brains and can come up with words in a timely fashion.
The next important thing is that the board isn't revealed to you. You only do see the first two lines, the lines 3 to 7 have to be scouted first. You only see "one letter ahead", meaning only the letters in +1 vision range of the one's you conquered - you may only use the ones you have and the ones in vision range. Revealed letters stay the way they are, but disappear under the fog of war if you can't see them anymore. Meaning, you do not know for certain if they're still neutral or not.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/g2hjyJw.png) the important letters
Consequently you should get the letters positioned on 2 and 5 in the next line to reveal the entire third row. At this point you don't need to fear your opponent can already take them. It's paramount to scout as many of the next lines as possible.
The second priority is to already conquer as many letters as possible. It's not "that" important, but it helps you to defend your position if your opponent gains ground. He has to use letters twice then, you only once to re-conquer. Understood? Great!
Now, back to the actual game I played against DatA. I already experienced a rape once when I had to face Salle (the mastermind of Liquipedia), but that wasn't too bad for my ego. Salle was fed with dictionaries as infant and was genetically altered, I knew very well what kind of word producing monster he was. DatA - no idea. Another wannabe Scandinavian, and these guys (positive racism 4tw) usually have a talent for the English language, whereas I was forged in the hellfires of bug reports by Koreans on ICCup. SEXY SEXY PUSSY HAIR DOG MOTHER, REPORT PLAYER BAD HACK. I thought his first few words would give me an impression, or phrased differently, would mean I should not panic yet.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ku5Gnhc.png) The average DatA word vs. the average Gecko word
Ok, I was like "fuck it", just drag on the game. A small hint: If you do need to look up the words your opponent posted, you're basically screwed. Also, don't you only have little time.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ajvKesw.png) Lines 3 - 5After a few turns I felt like I had a bad starting position, given that there were three Qs and one X. But I did have all vowels, which is a huge plus. I could use them to my favour, I mean he had them as well, but nevermind that fact, just like my granny always said "if you live in slaughter house don't throw pigs around". ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Br9kiOJ.png) that's what happens way too often
Back to the strategy part. The middle line, line four, is often a very important place to trade blows. If you have parts of it, you are in the position to actually move towards your enemy. If the middle line remains neutral, you and your opponent respectively, have the same options. It's a tie - nobody has an advantage.
One of my biggest mistake when I started out was to trade the line half in half. E.g. having two letters, my opponent having two letters, one remaining constantly neutral. That blows, if your opponent is able to kill off your two letters while neutralising two or more of your third line, you're suddenly behind - by more than just a bit. So, it turns out, at least for me, that fighting off enemy letters, while utilizing all five letters in an ideal scenario, is the thing you should aim for.
Our war for the middle row started on the sixth turn and lasted for ages. It was really intense, because the letters Q and X are not that easy to use. The second one party had it, the other had to come up with a word similar to it as well. Mind you, the longer the fight for that area lasts, the more likely it is that your opponent used ALL his letters on his side; meaning you will have to calculate with a longer game overall. In average a YouLetter game (in my experience) lasts for a little longer than 35 minutes.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/vyyjWt9.png) the first small victory
In move 32 I first gained the smallest of all advantages by using the word "TUXEDO" on him. as you can see, I had U E and X of line four, while he had nothing. He got rid of the E and the X in a few more moves, but I could keep the U. Before, DatA was able to sometimes break through, but what I thought was bad for me, turned out to be helping me: My third line had two Qs at the sides, which I couldn't use; well neither could he. That stopped his march onwards. When he slightly overdid it, TUXEDO came to help. More importantly though, his third line was filled with neutral letters - not good. I could easily gain a small edge and the pressure was on him for a bit. Since move 32 the war was now who'd control line four and five, rather than line four only!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/F4MNQFQ.png) move #62: FIXES
In move 61 and following 62 I did something rather stupid. I missed that he took the X of line four with "FIXES". Missing in this context means I was fully aware of the fact he now had access to the letters T, L, Q, but didn't pay any attention. It wasn't too bad in my opinion - remember I had the U and saw tons of neutral letters on his side.
I half assed my way to the X once or twice, but he defended it well enough. My mistake was to assume I'd get another letter in one of his lines over time, neglecting the fact that he defended just too well. I was just arrogant, especially since it seemed to continue in my favour.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/GrH5OpM.png) my move: OBLIGED
The picture above shows why that was - I was so close to his starting line after "only" 41 minutes of game time, I really did smell the victory already. I had control over a lot of letters, more than he did. So what could possibly happen?
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/lGQel5J.png) view from DatA's perspective - not great
Only four turns later, I had my foot in his door. I had the B almost constantly and enough letters in his third line - that's a really awkward position to be in as player. However, he still had 17 letters he could use to build words.
And now for the obligatory excuse - I got a phone call in move 71 (BIOLOGY) and had to answer it - sort of. I thought I could pay enough attention to it. Meanwhile, I grew tired. My concentration slowly started to fade, I saw myself crossing the finish line in my head. That was bloody stupid.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/bsgNLL7.png) where did my letters go all of a sudden?
Again, only four turns later, I suddenly was back to fighting for line five and suddenly couldn't see the X in line four again. What happened? Only "GIFT". Small but efficient, he drove me back a long time, while securing and re-establishing his second line. The fuck Gecko, the fuck...
I rallied my last reserves in move 95 and 55 minutes and invested in another go at his second line - with a somewhat good pay off on my side. I was quite annoyed that he didn't quit already, it had the feeling of some Terran floating his buildings and all. I admired the spirit, but frankly, he could have left. Foolish me.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/rLeVIAP.png) last move before the disc
Then I had a heart attack, as my Italian Hotel WIFI died on me for almost two minutes. I hastely reconnected and, lucky me, was back. Even better, it was his turn, so I did not lose time for my turn. So, I was back, just in time to see him defending by putting pressure on me. He threw me back for the 100th time. Suddenly it went back for a fight for the middle line - again. Terran vs. Terran VODs come to mind.
Around move #120 I made the most idiotic mistake so far - I gave up on the idea to conquer line by line, denying him access to futher letters. Instead I traded neutral letters and my letters, as long as I could keep vision on his second line. That's one of the newb moves you can do, trading is always bad. You either take it all or you better don't, it'll turn the game into a gamble, particularly retarded if your opponent is good. And DatA is quite good. He conquered tile after tile, I did too.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/7QMAYfc.png) why is he still in?
At #154 it looks good for me, doesn't it? No, it does not. He still had vision (and thus the ability to use) all of his first three lines plus a few options in line four. It continued, I got my act together, at least for a while.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/DVW9pAo.png) his move: QUIT - and I see nothing of it
I did clean tons of his offensive taken letters in the center, but the guy sneaked past my vision with QUIT in #187 - which I did not realize. This fog of war is a bitch. Around #200 the S on his starting line got in my head. I was already nearly powered out and he could "simply" just take my words and put them into plural by adding the S; an option I did not have. The fight was really hard, back and forth, back and forth, try, fail, repeat. Blargh. I really was tired, it was around 20:15, I was up since 6:15 and hadn't eaten since 11:45. Excuses everyone.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/R2LKAXq.png) that's the final move, "only" around twenty steps after the pic above
I don't really know how it happened, but around #200 that "%& great player was able to take the battle onto the center. It was almost 2 hours of play time, no break, I was hungry as fuck and that Danish monster completely broke my mind, body and spirit.
Don't get me wrong, I felt really, really angry I couldn't keep my focus, that he wouldn't give up, that the game was so annoying and that I was stupid enough to surrender. Yet, I can't help but applaud to the man, he really did play his cards (letters) up to a point where it just went into madness. I have never, ever felt that defeated in my online life.
For a comparison: The longest game (according to Largo) was played by RUS_Brain and took 2 hours 15 minutes. We were at 1 hour 48 minutes and there was no ending in sight. Objectively, after re-watching the game days later, I still could have made a come back, but it would've taken at least another hour (best case scenario) before it was over, most likely longer.
I really do hope I made you somewhat interested in the game, because, and I'm totally honest here, it's super stuff and it does really grow on you. Do try it. There's a tournament coming up in nine days with a few $$ as prizes. Even if you're not into that kind of games, show a bit of appreciation for the guys who promote it!
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EPT
