“Once you can make a balloon dog, you can do anything.”

Geek Out

Blow up. The inspirational balloon-dog line above comes from Twisted: A Balloonamentary, a documentary making its New York premiere this weekend and throughout next week. I saw an earlier cut of the film (one of the directors, Sara Taksler, is a friend) and couldn’t be happier to recommend it to GONY readers. The filmmakers immersed themselves in this surprisingly deep balloon-twisting world without “going native,” and the result is a moving look at a varied ensemble of characters. It’s easy to film a strange subculture and edit the footage together for entertainment purposes; it’s much harder to make a movie that seeks both to entertain and understand. Twisted made the extra effort to be emotionally and intellectually honest, and viewers are better off for it. The New York screening schedule and tickets are available at the Pioneer Theater site, and if you’re not in the New York area, you can buy the DVD from the official Twisted site.

Geek In

Don’t monopolize. The dirty secret of the classic board game Monopoly is that it’s not a very good game. There’s a bit of strategy, but the action is determined to an overwhelming degree by dice rolls. Worse yet, the game usually doesn’t end until long after the outcome is a foregone conclusion. It’s these drawbacks (and more) that explain the game’s dismal 4.5 rating on BoardGameGeek.

I still love Monopoly for the nostalgia, but if you want to scratch that “buying pieces of cardboard with colorful paper money itch,” you might try Acquire instead. Avalon Hill, the classic board-game designer that’s now a division of Wizards of the Coast (itself a subsidiary of Hasbro), is re-releasing some of their forgotten classics, and Acquire is the latest. It’s the first time Acquire—more a game of investment than pure acquisition—has been in print since 1999. It may not have the cachet of Rich Uncle Pennybags, but having tried it a few times in college, I can attest that’s Acquire is better than Monopoly from an “actually playing and enjoying” perspective. Available wherever fine board games are sold (expect to pay about 20 bucks).