Stay tuned to the Am I Evil? Facebook page, the Am I Evil? website, and the Am I Evil? IndieGoGo page!
Updates will be coming soon with information about the campaign to get yourself a low-price, Indy graphic novel of “Am I Evil?” based on the classic song.
This is about creating a widely-available print version, but it can also get you access to the e-comic and the 17,000-word novella.
Am I Evil? website: https://www.amievil-graphicnovel.com/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/amievilgraphicnovel
IndieGoGo for the Print Edition: Coming soon.
I’m first?
Cool!
Yes I know, technically Jack is first.
I can’t be first – -that’d be cheating! 🙂
Well another fucking early shift.
New to me:
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/lex-luthor-took-forty-cakes
I’m in! Just waiting for the funding page to start up.
End of an era:
https://arstechnica.com/culture/2023/05/end-of-an-era-cd-baby-stops-distributing-artists-cds-vinyl-and-other-goods/
Bloody Hell:
https://t.co/Eus0Ep4xQh
You seem surprised.
I shouldn’t but stupidity on this scale does always come as a surprise.
Goodbye to Tina Turner:
https://trib.al/9oe4XW6
Aww man
I missed her early career, but man, she was dominant for a few years in the 80s.
RIP.
Absolute legend. Absolute icon.
I can’t imagine anyone here will care, but the original Marvel Super Heroes RPG was a big deal for me as a young buck. Cool to see it available online.
https://mshgamer.com/downloads/book-resources/
Cheap at half the price (eeek!):
https://www.foliosociety.com/uk/the-hitchhiker-s-guide-to-the-galaxy-limited-edition.html
Started reading this, but dammit, I have things to do:
https://www.gq.com/story/dave-matthews-profile?utm_source=pocket-newtab
I don’t like the first new single from DMB. I dislike much of his poppier stuff, but – – I am an unapologetic Dave Matthews Band fan. So many excellent songs from the 90s. He’s one of the most underappreciated guitarists of his era.
So the first recording of ‘What’s Love got to do with it’ was not by Tina Turner:
https://youtu.be/gGU8usqzgrg
Cancelled board game resurrected by another company:
https://www.polygon.com/23735834/metal-gear-solid-board-game-integral-cmon-preorder-price-release-date
They may have been flops at the cinema but all the movies in this list are great and have had positive reviews from critics:
https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/most-underrated-sci-fi-movies-of-the-1970s/?fbclid=IwAR0Dcf5ZpbdUrhiGJOzNg7jlrUAARRGxj_wDqACSUKwummEm4bRzSy81Usw
I’ve not seen Phase IV or the Stepford Wives. The rest, I would agree, area all brilliant.
Alien was released 44 years ago today, tweets about how the film was made:
https://en.rattibha.com/thread/1661664750273527810
Interesting that Star Wars, Alien, and Towel Day anniversaries all converge.
Finally watched the finale of Mrs Davis, the whole series has been a fun ride and the finale hit me in the feels a few times.
I hope they don’t do a S2, it’s a perfect one off mini series.
I was unaware of the 1979 Dracula with Frank Langella as the Count.
Aside from being hopelessly dated, it’s . . . ok. It’s like they gave some scriptwriter a bunch of cocaine and a list of character names with 2-word descriptions.
So many inexplicable changes from the novel and the original movie. Also: For some reason, all of the characters are assholes. You’re not really rooting for any of them.
Frank Langella and his Love Boat hair are great.
CP: Cheap Shoes — illuminati hotties
Ah Airdrie.
Another newspaper front page pic that doesn’t match the headline
This week the pic is of a bunch of kids on a miniature train, the headline warns of traffic delays on the highway due to construction
CP cut the Line by Papa Roach
Our music channels actually show music videos … and nothing else
All quiet on the Deadpan front
We’re making progress toward MMMmmmeetup 2023!
Does anyone have any driving/rental car plans?
I know both Ed and Rhett have rented cars so we should have enough. We can’t count on the husband to join us much so I’ll only have the one car to use myself
Yep, I will have a car rental. Hopefully, I’ll have my passport as well. The soonest date I could get was in Tucson June 2nd. I’ll get it expedited.
My plans are in flux. I can’t commit to anything at this point.
Still waiting for an op date 🙁
It’s my least favourite of the HH books but I started a reread of Mostly Harmless yesterday. The ending I hate but the journey is compelling, DA was a unique talent.
The only HH book that I’ve only read once.
Did you ever read Eoin Colfer’s official book 6? I do think Mostly Harmless was better than that one.
CP: I Don’t Need No Doctor — Ray Charles
We’ll be seeing this tomorrow:
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/26/1177917346/the-little-mermaid-review-remake-disney-halle-bailey?ft=nprml&f=1045
I’m honestly not a fan of the original, but I’ve endured it many times for the benefit of young people. It’s just a movie, FFS. So I have zero expectations.
I have no doubt that the majority of the hate responses at places like RottenTomatoes are motivated by triggered nutjobs with nothing better to do.
According to Facebook, it’s an Asshat birthday today!
Have a great one!
Have a wonderful birthday!
Happy birthday!
Thanks all! It was a great day.
CW: The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel S5E9
The final episode ever.
The Boy George Do You Really Want to Hurt Me video does not age well.
To refresh your memory, he’s in a courthouse. The entire jury is in black face
Weird how some people would find that harmless, yet believe that Boy George’s cross-dressing was the real problem.
Today we’re going to do our civic duty and vote for a provincial premier (similar to your governor, I think?)
We really dislike our current one but it’s a really tight race at the moment so it’s possible she might get back in
I hope your province turns its leadership back toward sanity.
I won’t see it at the cinema but will definitely watch when it comes to streaming:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBk4NYhWNMM
There, I voted
JW: Sisu
Finnish (with English Dialogue) John Wick style action film set in WW2.
A little bit of tv history about a British sci-fi anthology series:
https://t.co/xNG32aFGIG
So the new Little Mermaid is a massive improvement over the original. All of the changes are positive, some corrective, some just nice added detail.
Still not for me. It’s too damn long – – and I think they could have made even more changes – – but overall, fans should be pleased.
I’d say I’m baffled by the griping, but I should never be baffled anymore by griping.
Was this one of the improvements?
https://youtu.be/3eIT5XYXAl8
The girl who played Ariel did fine, but I’d have been thrilled to see Alissa White-Gluz in the role.
Or at least as Ursula’s evil seductive form.
I skimmed past a heading that said something about Corey Taylor comparing [band name] to early Slipknot.
So I went looking for Sleep Token, thinking it might be something I’d enjoy since I enjoy Slipknot.
Sleep Token… is nothing like Slipknot. It’s interesting but not engaging, if that makes sense.
Swollen Teeth, on the other hand, does remind me of Slipknot and seems very interesting.
… So where the heck did I come up with Sleep Token, when I’d never heard of them before?
Maybe because Sleep Token are the darlings of the moment?
Huh. I’m surprised. I mean, they’re close enough to something I’d enjoy that I listened to about five songs before flouncing. There’s just something missing.
Nick Cave is always on point.
(Disclaimer, I have only skimmed this. . . and what I read is beautiful. . . but I have faith in Nick Cave)
https://www.nme.com/features/music-interviews/nick-cave-interview-hope-faith-carnage-new-bad-seeds-grinderman-cancel-culture-coronation-3448005
CP: The Pink Panther Theme – Henry Mancini
There ain’t no justice:
https://t.co/W3ysfdlwnQ
So that new D&D movie is a good time. Definitely recommended. Lots of fun little touches from the game, but no game knowledge required.
I particularly enjoyed the nod to the 80’s cartoon series.
I missed it! I had to Google, but now it’s obvious. Nicely done.
This is an excellent start:
http://neil-clarke.com/ai-statement/
Enjoyed the series finale of Barry.
CW: American Born Chinese E1
I saw someone comment that Barry goes darker even than GoT or Breaking Bad?
New podcast discovery:
https://broadview.org/podcasts/
Happy Day Off, to all who benefit. And I do believe in the sentiment behind the day. War is never noble, but sometimes necessary. The men, women, and children who’ve died while attempting to end those conflicts need to be recognized.
Well it’s a May bank holiday in the UK, so time to do very little.
Last weekend was the holiday here
Seems like the Alberta election went to the MAGA ehh party again?
Crap joke for the day:
What’s the difference between a guitar and a fish?
You can’t “tuna” fish.
As my dad used to say when I told him old jokes: “I kicked the sides off my cradle when I first heard that one.”
Alberta decided to stay all crazy pants
Having brunch with a friend later this morning
Celebrate the dead by killing peoples:
https://t.co/vy14A7jO7A
I don’t know how to get past our blockers and fix this.
Ah AI doing stuff that most people don’t care about:
https://t.co/rh4kmP28DL
I think I shall go for a walk this morning
Teaser trailer for the 6th season of Black Mirror:
https://youtu.be/5jY1ecibLYo
We watched ep 1 of Silo, based on all the hype.
This first ep was by-the-numbers dystopian Sci-Fi. It has potential. We’ll keep going, but I remain unconvinced.
I’d never read the books, so IDK if that helps or hurts the cause.
Two of the biggest companies in our lives – – Netflix, Amazon – – have gone from “We will do whatever it takes to provide you with excellent service” to “We don’t care in the slightest about your convenience or customer satisfaction.”
They’re doing cheesy videos again on the music station. Steve Perry has really tight jeans on. I’m not sure how he can walk
Obsession by Animotion is pretty silly
Meh. They’ve done Meatloaf’s Anything for Love in other episodes
Eye of the Tiger by Survivor
Look at that hair
You Are The Girl by The Cars was just baffling
Dear Kommisar by Falco. He runs funny
Der not dear
Shadows of the Night by Pat Benetar
She’s a ww1 fighter pilot
Sorry ww2
I remember this video well. Great song.
Good song, silly video
The Lion Sleeps Tonight by Tough Fit is definitely cheesy
This video wins today’s cheesiest in my mind
Although Freedom of Choice by Devo came a close second
The writers room on Lost was not a happy place:
https://t.co/X5calA1DEU
Another hubbiless evening. It’s times like these that I kind of wish he went into education or something where he’d be off work at 3:30… oh, wait.
Starting “Witch King” today!
It’s a little blustery out today
Seeing lots of chatter about the Ted Lasso finale. We watched last night too.
I think they totally stuck the landing.
I have still not watched a single episode.
/shrugs
I know it’s become trendy, but I think it’s an excellent show. It mostly earns its emotional payoffs where it can. Mostly.
We don’t have Apple TV so we haven’t watched it either
So the big Vegas weekend trip became an overnighter, in town just to see Helloween.
Bucket list concert for me.
I hope they tell him to piss off:
https://puck.news/the-tom-cruise-vs-oppenheimer-movie-theater-smackdown/?_cio_id=f6c60601ab8301dced02&utm_campaign=What+I%27m+Hearing+-+LEADS+%286%2F1%2F23%29&utm_content=What+I%27m+Hearing+-+LEADS+%286%2F1%2F23%29&utm_medium=email_action&utm_source=customer.io&utm_term=f6c60601ab8301dced02
Adios to the first Chromecast:
https://arstechnica.com/google/2023/05/the-original-chromecast-hits-end-of-life-after-a-decade-of-service/
Still got one, still works but boy does it get warm when being used.
Miss kitty goes for her arthritis shot this morning. I expect a grumpy kitty
Well that is ominous :
https://t.co/pkvBQz4Fip
A couple of enormous challenges wrapped into one issue there. Feels like responsible, collaborative social planning could have lessened all of them.
https://www.theonion.com/still-too-early-to-tell-if-pulling-chain-turned-overhea-1819592846
The Sphere in Vegas is seriously impressive from the outside. It’s one of the most Sci-Fi things I’ve ever seen in the real world.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/msg-sphere-las-vegas-experience-postcard-earth-1235370782/amp/
Gonna play some Palace of Mad King Ludwig with friends today
Trying to explain Zork to the little one.
Good luck, you’ll need it.
JW: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Still a good film, but some of the SFX (especially some of the zeppelin shots) feel inferior to ToD.
CP: Blinding Lights – The Weeknd
Continuing the MMMMeetup chat from earlier in the page: Expedited passport application is away! Now I know where to find the post office with the dedicated passport center in Omaha. The staff there were very helpful and said that since mine is a renewal, it should process relatively quickly.
Thanks so much for renting cars, Ed and Rhettro. Did you guys both end up booking the same hotel? I need to make my reservation still.
I haven’t booked a hotel yet – still on my to do list.
I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for the next 2 months, waiting for my passport, hoping for no fuckery.
I believe Ryah recommended either the Best Western or Days Inn in Airdrie. I’m booked close to the Calgary airport. This was done because Teresa had points she could apply toward the cost. Speaking of, it looks like Teresa will be coming after all. 🙂
The Westin Calgary Airport
671 Aero Drive NE
Calgary, Alberta T2E7Y5
I filed for my passport yesterday in Tucson, all the Phoenix locations were booked. And I paid for the expedited review. The longest standard reviews were putting me right at the week we leave. I’m hopeful the extra fee will shave a week or two off the delivery date.
Finished watching the Netflix series Fubar. It was fun
Currently playing Deliver Us Mars which is a sequel to Deliver Us The Moon.
This leads to the question, why is it called The Moon but we don’t call it The (any other planet)? We don’t say “look at the mars,” or “look at the venus” but we do say, “look at the moon”.
Why?
Ok, looked it up. The Moon and The Sun is general as opposed to actual names such as Luna and Sol, thus we would say The Planet, or Earth, Mars, etc.
I learned something new today.
I first leaned it was called Sol from the Alien novelisation.
+r
I knew it was called Sol, I just didn’t make the connection on the “the” classification
Watched the fourth Indy film tonight for the first time since seeing it at the cinema.
It’s watchable.
I recall Crystal Skull being a pile of turds, but I actually don’t hate the most infamous scene. I thought the fridge thing was kinda fun.
Leave it to me to think that the fridge scene is fun and ok, but the trucks speeding through the forest cutting trees down to a drivable level at 55 mph is what pisses me off.
Shia’s character swinging through the trees with the small monkeys would have even made Tarzan roll his eyes.
WTF:
https://t.co/zghaNdHGWT
“Across the Spiderverse” gets a thumbs up from me. This is an animation feature that really exploits the fact that it is an animation.
My sister-in-law insists that Tiffany and I go see it.
Is it 5-yo-friendly? The Parents’ Guide at IMDB makes it seem mostly tame, though with an intense finale.
It’s pretty frantic in its pacing, think Liquid Television X11. I don’t think there are any scenes that would keep me from showing it to my kids if they were 5, but at the same time, I don’t think a 5-year-old would follow what is happening. Depending on the kid they might get confused, and frustrated by the confusion.
The husband seems to have caught a cold. I have too much going on this week, he better not give it to me
So I’m recording the Am I Evil? novella as a – – ahem – – Podiobook to be released in conjunction with the campaign.
Well, the episodes will be exclusively on YouTube, so not quite a Podiobook.
This process is still a challenge, but it’s nice to do it again, like revisiting an old playground. With old, rusty slides and swings.
A book done as a serialized audio version???!!! Never work. 🙂
As for hotels, I’m moving it to email
CP: Sandusky – Uncle Tupelo
I truly love this instrumental.
You know Disney will keep a digital copy of him for decades:
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/mark-hamill-retires-luke-skywalker-star-wars-tell-other-stories-1235632908/
No doubt. And it’s not like they need him involved, but California have certain laws about the use of images, names, etc of living people. They only need to wait until he’s dead and then they can do all the Luke shows they want.
Thinking of the future as in 2024, the solar eclipse visible from North America is April 8th 2024.
There was some talk about a Texas meet-up, anybody have thoughts on this?
There is no dark side in the moon really. Matter of fact, it’s all dark.
Too right it dark with an albedo of 0.12
I have thoughts that, probably, only Van would understand.
Short answer is, I most likely won’t be going to Texas
I think it’d be fun to chase another eclipse, and to see someplace new.
But I’d always vote for the event that gets the most of us to attend.
Agreed. Didn’t realize the eclipse was that early in the year.
For 2024, if we decide not to do another eclipse meet-up, and like to suggest picking a meet-up weekend that doesn’t conflict with either Dragon Con (Labor Day weekend) or Creation Star Trek Las Vegas (first weekend in August, usually). I really want to hit up both next year.
“I’d like to,” not “and like to.”
My wife has expressed a preference for that one to be a family trip for us…so, it doesn’t look like I won’t be up for hosting duties on that one.
That said, one of these years, I’d be up for hosting a Houston gathering if folks were interested. While we’re not a big tourist destination, there’s a fair bit to do around here. Our zoo is pretty well regarded for the folks that are into that 🙂
Ok, what is advantage of using stones in a glass of whiskey over ice.
I guess the dilution factor but then why bother with the stones?
I tried stones. I prefer ice. I find it keeps the whiskey cooler longer. However, ice does dilute it somewhat. It really comes down to personal preference
Ok, got home sooner than expected. Sent out an email.
What was that air museum called that’s near the airport, the one with the Avro Lancaster?
Do you mean this?
https://thehangarmuseum.ca/
I didn’t include it, mostly because it’s very small and nothing compared to the one we saw in Arizona. You can get through the whole thing in an hour or two
I do, I thought it was nice.
The cat discovered a fly in the house. Time to hide the breakables while she chases it
The fly problem has been solved. Kitty has had her protein for the day
Is the cat named Renfield?
So I finally got round to buying a cordless hand held vacuum cleaner.
Just to keep the cobwebs in check.
Meg White was such a geeky crush in the early aughts.
https://www.elle.com/culture/music/a43846386/meg-white-interview-2023/?utm_source=pocket-newtab
I hope some of you guys will tune in tonight for the Facebook Livestream. Be there if you can!
So the local cinema showing Across the Spiderverse is only showing it in small cinemas that have no seats with enough legroom for me to sit comfortably.
/sigh
RIP Astrud Gilberto, the voice of the classic version of “Girl from Ipanema.”
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/06/1180416189/astrud-gilberto-the-girl-from-ipanema-singer-dies-at-83
Still good:
https://youtu.be/c5QfXjsoNe4
This is, and will likely always be, the best version.
That entire album is pure genius.
Crap joke for the day:
Did you know that in Hawaii it’s illegal to laugh loudly? You need to keep it to a low ha.
I’m in:
https://youtu.be/vH5NAahf76s
And we’re live!!
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/am-i-evil-graphic-novel-in-print/x/24081795#/
Good first 6 hours after the launch, but we need to hit the stratosphere this week.
I’m going to be busy, busy, busy. busy.
Crap joke for the day:
What is the difference Ironman and AluminiumMan?
One stops the bad guys the other just foils their plans…
So Jack… just how good/bad an artist are you? Are we talking stick figure or 10% below professional?
I’ve made some pro-quality pencil drawings – – I’ve surprised myself when doing drawings with and for my little one, but I think I’d need to quit everything and take some classes to round out my techniques and go pro.
I did a sketch of Vandr from Am I Evil? – – and it didn’t come close to the pics that my artist Kyle has done. The talent gap between him and me was clear.
Why do you ask?
I ask because one of the levels of the Am I Evil IndieGoGo page has a drawing from you as a tier bonus. Tier Fire ($100) has a “portrait by Jack”. “The portrait created by Jack Mangan, who is not remotely pro artist, based on a picture you provided.”
I realized why you;d asked awhile after responding to you. . . 😀
I completely forgot I’d made that offer.
I’ve posted some of my pencil drawings to Facebook in the past. I’ll post a few in the days ahead.
I enjoyed Across the Spiderverse, although not gory I did wonder by one couple brought their three year old kid to watch it.
If there was a team #SpiderGwen I would be on it.
Wow
Just landed in Newark and the smoke is so thick, vissability seems about 200 yards
I posted a photo (nicked from Twitter) on Facebook in the DP group of the orange sky in NYC.
This was Alberta a couple of weeks ago. John’s school had to cancel all outdoor activities for a couple of weeks
So I’ve been out of the States and out of touch.
Who set Canada on fire and why?
Rumor is it was Chilliwack. Now everyone wishes the smoke was gone, gone, gone.
Chrome has been seriously naughty and disrespectful all day today.
You should give it spankings.
Don’t. It might be into it
https://variety.com/2021/film/news/jodie-foster-anthony-hopkins-silence-of-the-lambs-30th-anniversary-1234887496/
OMG, this is NOT where I’d intended to post this.
It’s so much creepier as a followup to those comments above.
So I am still sitting in Newark.
Rumor has it, if all this dirty brown smoke were to clear out – it would STILL be a Hellscape.
The Canadian smoke has probably improved the air quality in Newark today.
Safe travels, Joe!
I may have shared this before, they have made a documentary focusing on Soviet bus stops:
https://youtu.be/bgGsacqNVOQ
Goodbye and good riddance:
https://www.newser.com/story/336277/pat-robertson-is-dead-at-93.html?utm_source=breakingnews&utm_medium=email&utm_content=22638218249478861282&utm_campaign=20230608
He can’t spread fear or disinformation anymore, nor can he pilfer money from the naive. The world is better without him in it.
There is an expression my Dad used to say when when anybody in the family was ill; “you be are only fit for the glue factory”.
Feel like I’m heading in that direction sooner than I was expecting.
<3
There is an expression my Dad used to say when when anybody in the family was ill; “you are only fit for the glue factory”.
Feel like I’m heading in that direction sooner than I was expecting.
Her milkshake brought an old guy to her yard:
https://trib.al/Ql1RVuU
He can bring the cheeburger cheeburger cheeburger to their date.
Most interesting line from this –
“…reportedly dating the “Ghostbusters” actor…”
If your editor tells you to only list one of his credits, is this the one you go with?
A Circle in the Desert, a documentary covering a man’s exploration of the Colorado plateau in Utah:
https://youtu.be/wB4PpNPifrM
Matthew Wayne Selznick chimes in on the AI thing.
https://www.mattselznick.com/ai-ethics-for-writers/
So watched the Blackberry biopic before I went to a gig. Was not bad at all although I read some liberties were taken with the plot.
Goodbye to Ian McGinty:
http://dlvr.it/SqTKsy
I rather enjoyed Bee and Puppycat which he worked on.
When a friend you haven’t heard from in awhile calls you, and you start the conversation jokingly, only to learn that they’re calling with bad news to share. . . . 🙁
He wasn’t a famous podcaster, but he was well-known and well-loved in the community. RIP Bruce Press, and fuck cancer.
I won’t claim that he and I were BFFs, but I always liked him and his family. He was here in Phoenix a few years back, and we just couldn’t make it work. I always had something going on and couldn’t get out to meet up with him. “Next time,” is how we left it off.
The husband never listens to me. I told him not to give me his cold. *sigh*
The virus obviously took that personally.
*Michael Jordan meme”
Marvel not having a good run with actors who
Play villains in the MCU:
https://reforma.com/SujJaf
En espanol.
But – – unfortunate.
https://thedirect.com/article/black-panther-2-tenoch-huerta-sexual-assault-accused
In happier obituary news, Ted Kascynzki (sp?) is trying to catch up to Pat Robertson on the Highway to Hell.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/unabomber-ted-kaczynski-found-dead-prison-cell-rcna88702
I’m told that there are people saluting him, which is horrible yet unsurprising.
I’ve never read any of his manifesto, and never will. He was an intelligent person, so I’m sure he had some decent observations about society. That doesn’t make him someone to venerate.
Watching the Raiders of Lost Ark in B/W to admire the cinematography:
https://extension765.com/blogs/soderblog/raiders
Watched Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure with the little one.
My favorite moments still hit for me, but. . . man, this movie hasn’t aged well.
Nothing offensive or insensitive, just so many jokes that fall flat. The first 5-or-so minutes before his bike is stolen are nigh-unwatchable.
Or may be it’s aged just fine, and I’ve aged into an old crust.
The legacy of Manos.
https://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2150-5-things-i-learned-as-child-star-worst-movie-ever.html
I found this story (other than the suicide of course) to be kind of sweet.
Yeah, I never knew that Torgo committed suicide before the movie ever released.
Tornado Girl:
https://buff.ly/3axynwL
The writer is making the assumption that the girl didn’t manifest that vortex.
I won’t make THAT mistake again.
Something is happening at reddit this week.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/reddit-api-charges-spark-community-outrage-dayslong-blackout/ar-AA1crN8r?OCID=ansmsnnews11
I hope they’re successful, but I’m not optimistic.
CP: Desire — Meg Myers
Goodbye to Treat Williams:
https://bit.ly/462WCLc
Odd that. I’ve had a song from Hair rolling through my head all morning out of nowhere. I must be being haunted my Treat.
I may uninstall Chrome and reinstall it.
My day-to-day requires that I use all 3 major browsers. That is sometimes a burden, but it’s the only one that craps out.
Gecko, Blink, and WebKit?
This seems to be a word game but I don’t know how to play.
Oh, sorry. That was supposed to be a reply to Jack. I was trying to guess what the three major browsers would be now. Edge and Chrome are Blink. Safari is WebKit. Firefox is Gecko. Brave, Vivaldi, and even (I think) Opera all use Blink.
I always have Edge, Chrome, and FF open. I realize some of them copy off of each other’s papers, but I didn’t know the actual names of their backbones. Do you work with this stuff?
Safari is the third most-used – – way ahead of Firefox – – but that’s mainly on iPhones, so I don’t have that on my Windows machine.
I’m working on turning my technophilia into a career. I expect to graduate in 25 and get to actually work with these things. I actually thought that “Blink” was Chromium until I looked it up because I knew I didn’t know Firefox’s web engine off the top of my head.
I use mainly use Vivaldi but Edge has Microsoft’s excellent “read aloud” tool. That helps me digest technical reading a lot faster.
CP: Pins And Needles — The Birthday Massacre
Goodbye to Cormac McCarthy:
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/cormac-mccarthy-dead-no-country-author-1235642944/
Only read one book of his.
The Road was a life-changer for me, as a reader and as a writer. It’s one of the most devastating and beautiful things I’ve ever encountered.
“Blood Meridian” is a long, long, punishing journey, but his language is always just awe-inspiring. The scene that caps off with “I’ve never seen that man before in my life” (quoting from memory) is as good as it gets.
RIP. We’ll never have another Cormac McCarthy.
The Road, like Doomsday Book and The Fifth Season, shattered me. I quit reading for several months after each of them.
I didn’t care for “The Road”. I found it to be ponderous, and depressing read and it didn’t seem to add anything new to the post-appocolypse genre.
Maybe I shouldn’t have read it at the beach♂️
Good day to you, sir. Good day!
I found the movie of The Road to be just OK, because it basically just tells another apocalypse story.
But reading the book, man. . . Paragraph after paragraph of just incredible beauty.
I am so done with this cold
Conversely I’m done with the heat, 21C today and it’s just the start of Summer.
🙁 Summer colds somehow feel more grueling than winter colds.
21? It’s been hovering around 28 C the last week here. It’s a boiling cold for me
Goodbye to John Romita Sr:
https://t.co/eiErg6kQqM
We took our sweet time getting through it, but we finished the HBOMax “His Dark Materials” series. For such a clearly-expensive show, I never heard or saw anyone talking about it.
I’ve never read the books. Overall, the series is good. The final two episodes are a mess, but they don’t wreck the series.
The first two books in the series are well worth a read.
I read the first book, but wasn’t that interested in finishing the series.
I’ve known many people who dug the books.
Apparently readers loved the mini-series.
As have I. But everyone has different tastes for stories and characters.
I have this conversation every time I tell the rabid Wheel of Time fans that I stopped after book 1. 🙂
Did I happen to mention how I felt about “The Road”?
So how do we feel about the Vegas Golden Nights?
It’s complicated.
In short:
The recent expansion team rules are designed to give new franchises a headstart, so the Vegas Golden Knights entered the league just a few seasons ago as instant contenders. Seattle is the other brand new city, and they also had a legitimate outside shot at the championship.
This feels frustrating and unfair for all of the teams who have struggled and toiled away for years. Decades.
That said, I still wanted them to beat Florida. I was in Vegas for about 24 hours right before the Finals began, and it was good to see the VGK colors and logos EVERYWHERE.
They do seem to support their team but that is easier to do when they are a fresh new thing … and winning.
Living in a ghost town in Italy:
https://youtu.be/Cpevu80LZ5o
Wow, what a fantastic review of Am I Evil?
https://www.thenamelesszine.org/Illustrated-2023/Am_I_Evil.php
It’s a good review. My only critique is he kept saying Kickstarter instead of indiegogo. If someone does a search in kickstarter, they won’t find it.
Good call. I added that note in the social media postings.
CP: Tame — Pixies
Well first episode of S2 of Strange New Worlds watched and enjoyed.
Yes, we just finished watching it here. A strong start to the new season.
Though, we watched the S1 finale again last night to get back in the mood. That is certainly one of the top episodes in all of Star Trek.
CP: BLOW — Ed Sheeran, Chris Stapleton & Bruno Mars
Blackadder was first aired 40 years ago today.
So yeah…
I’m appalled, impressed, and slightly aroused at the notion that people have connected the Commodore 64 to the Internet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfahsGLtQwc
Good lord. . . . I only watched a small part of the video. Fun! But still. . . .good lord.
Been reading The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler. It’s pretty mind-blowing. My timing isn’t great. . . .I am not giving it the attention it deserves.
Just bought that one in ebook format today.
It’s been almost a week and I still don’t have a voice.
I’m so done with this cold
CP: Play Goodbye — Amazarashi
My triumphant(?) return to Podiobooks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFU_HDcu91o
Congratulations!
WTF:
https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/15/23762020/electric-ev-manual-transmission-fake-noise-toyota-lexus
I don’t think this is actually AI, by the strict definition, but maybe I’m wrong. Still cool.
https://www.stereogum.com/2226805/paul-mccartney-using-ai-to-release-the-last-beatles-record/news/
CW: Black Mirror S6E1
It’s back baby!
That was pretty good and the cameos were fun.
Interesting article, seems to be more focused on actual history than sensationalism, though the author does admit to some biases.
https://www.polygon.com/century-of-disney/23755495/walt-disney-problematic-fave-nazi-sympathizer-antisemitic-myths
I never knew EPCOT stood for Experimental Prototype City Of the Future.
The 1992 Coppola Dracula movie still really holds up. Such a stylish take.
Ah the old days…:
https://t.co/tBQvB7eQSi
I can’t believe I felt nostalgic while reading that.
“Jordana (legal assistant, New York City): My boss gave me a PalmPilot as a bonus instead of money. I rode the subway to work and played Dope Wars on my PalmPilot. I think I only ever used that PalmPilot to play Dope Wars.”
My wife got a Palm III as some kind of prize back in the late 90’s. I got a IIIx shortly thereafter and that was the end of our Franklin Planners.
I’d probably have to translate all that into English for my kids.
Lol
I cannot remember if I visited this museum
On trips to Denver:
https://wingsmuseum.org/
Yes, we visited it together.
Today I discovered what capers actually are and they sound disgusting.
That post should have been further down.
I hope you realise that if I ever rub a lamp and a genie gives me three wishes the Cornish Pasty Co. will be no more.
Now that’s dedication!
So The Flash was not a total disaster, the best bits were the scenes with the new Supergirl in them.
I’m hearing universal good reviews for it.
Using cosmic rays to navigate:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/06/scientists-conduct-first-test-of-a-wireless-cosmic-ray-navigation-system/
The eldest daughter took me to see the new Spider-verse movie last night. It was good, sure, but I don’t love it like everyone else seems to. I’ve never seen such an ADD movie. I was also frustrated by the “to be continued. . .”
Listening to the latest WTF episode with the Ben Kingsley and what an insufferable pratt he is, BK that is.
Few things make me ashamed to be English but that interview did.
Still don’t have a voice. Don’t have time today but might see the doctor tomorrow. This is getting silly.
Seriously guys, there is something wrong with your country
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/weekend-shootings-across-u-s-leave-6-dead-and-dozens-injured-1.6446344
Yes. It’s absolutely insane. And the (lack of) government response is despicable.
We are seeing their “response”.
It is the lack of government intervention that is dispicable.
CP: Drivin’ on 9 — The Breeders
Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65953872
Stolen from ditto’s Facebook feed!
https://designyoutrust.com/2023/06/this-artist-merges-laughter-and-design-in-pop-culture-parodies
Some of these are great.
Something to make you despair about humanity and the rare people determined to reveal them:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/Iot1dIWVS5/hunting-the-monkey-torturers
Something to make you despair about humanity and the rare people determined to reveal them:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/Iot1dIWVS5/hunting-the-monkey-torturers
We rented John Wick 4 tonight, because I missed it in the theater.
The first half was fun and stylish, in line with the rest of the series, but the second half started to feel really tedious. I was ready for it to be over.
But John Wick 5 is confirmed to be in development!
You guys can tell me if I’m just getting old and cranky.
Gun-fu at it’s finest?
I think the could have trimmed a good 30 minutes and had a tightly paced movie that would have been the pinnacle of the series.
I was talking to a friend about this one today. Each action set piece was magnificent…but then ran about 20% too long.
I enjoyed it, but not as much as the previous ones. It was less than the sum of its parts.
I’d agree with all of this.
I wouldn’t say that John Wick is the Die Hard of the 21st century. . . I think that franchise would have been better if there’d only been 1 movie, even with the ok sequels.
The JW sequels do add to the mystique of the universe and the characters.
It’s getting a directors cut:
https://t.co/PUBUiasz3V
Ocean depth comparison, in ft for Americans:
https://youtu.be/1eqqwC594UE
Similar but in metres and a few wrecks added:
https://youtu.be/Q5C7sqVe2Vg
David Gerrold – – the guy who wrote a a bunch of Star Trek episodes, including “Trouble With Tribbles,” and who’s also won tons of awards and published tons of books, stories, and other stuff – – has a gofundme to help his family’s move.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-move-david-gerrolds-family-to-vermont
I don’t doubt that this is legit. It’s just sad when even artists with incredibly successful, hall-of-fame careers are struggling like this.
Watched “Hobes and Shaw” on network TV the other night. (if there are many of those, I couldn’t tell you which one it was.)
It was really well done for a piece of mindless fun.
Good enough that I wish I had seen it on a streaming service to avoid the commercials.
Doubt I’ll go back and watch it again though.
ICYMI: I’ve been posting new Episodes of the IE Audiobook to YouTube.
Number 3 just released 56 minutes ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-UcT9s5Gy8
Well watch the first episode of Secret Invasion.
Has promise.
Didn’t realize that was out today. I saw some complaints about the opening using AI art.
Hey cool – – coverage at Bravewords:
https://bravewords.com/news/diamond-head-approved-am-i-evil-graphic-novel-completed-and-headed-to-print-video-trailer
Speaking of AI –
Was having drinks with my NASA buddy and he proposed that a natural use for the GPT AI was to catch the high end Tax Evaders.
His premise was that the trumps of the world make their taxes so convoluted that it can take thousands of hours to sort through all the data and try to figure out what they have done. The IRS already did not have enough employees to do the job and then the last administration gutted their ranks even further.
I forget the number he mentioned but the estimated loss in tax revenue was astounding.
Any way, he suggested that letting GPT sort through those large data sets could vastly speed up the process.
I guess I don’t understand how the GPT AI could find irregularities in bogus tax filings, but if it would work, go for it!
The real question: is there legitimate interest from government officials in auditing ultra-wealthy tax cheats?
I think this new breed of AI can learn. So you give it the tax code, then you feed it the body of work for those who have gotten creative and convoluted and somehow it learns what the mechanisms are. It could certainly sort through a mountain of offshore, shell companies in record time. Picking up on certain kinds of financial patterns that indicate “creative accounting”.
For years the main way the 1 and 2% cheat is by moving stuff around between accounts and renaming ownership so much that it can take a human accountant YEARS to sort through just on guys financials.
In theory, an AI could learn to do this in a very short time.
In answer to your other question, absolutely not. The very guys who would have to sign off on this are the ones taking advantage of it not happening. 🙁
CP: Astronomy Domine — Pink Floyd
Flicker, flicker, flicker.
Not looking good, I wonder if they had a structural failure that crushed them:
https://t.co/4d80aCKXpw
OceanGate statement in full
We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost.
These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.
This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss. The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organizations of the international community who expedited wide-ranging resources and have worked so very hard on this mission.
We appreciate their commitment to finding these five explorers, and their days and nights of tireless work in support of our crew and their families.
This is a very sad time for the entire explorer community, and for each of the family members of those lost at sea.
We respectfully ask that the privacy of these families be respected during this most painful time.
https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/trent_reznor_explains_why_hes_not_interested_in_touring_anymore_comments_on_musics_lack_of_importance_in_todays_world.html
I respect his desire to step away for his family. I’m unsure about his other comments, though. Hasn’t music always been no more than background noise for much of the population? Doesn’t it serve that purpose even for the biggest audiophiles among us?
I wonder if he meant that music used to be important to HIM but now was just a thing he was doing in the background of the rest of his life?
https://www.stylist.co.uk/fitness-health/wellbeing/feeling-cold-body-temperature/461296
I used to be the one who was always cold and John was always too warm. Over time, we seemed to reversed.
As I get older and fatter, it seems I get hotter and hotter. Anything over 67F and I start to feel like I’m getting cooked.
Your profound question of the day:
Being the product of a god and a mortal, would you compare Jesus to Perseus, Heracles, or the Minotaur?
Given that God is infinite and the Universe is also infinite, would you like a toasted teacake?
Jesus Christ, Perseus, and Minotaur all have 3 syllables, so you could easily retrofit songs and hymns for the other 2 myths. Personally, I’d love to see “Minotaur Superstar.”
Not that it fits the Jesus pattern, but I would definitely be down for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Miotaur.
Or even Minotaur
“Their turning the minoturs woke now with theyre rainbows!!1!! >:( “
https://www.planetary.org/video/bepicolombo-mercury-flyby-june-2023
Whatever else happens today, I’ve seen a video from Mercury. The planet, not the Freddie.
CP: Number 13 Baby (live) — Pixies
I watched “American History X” for the first time in years. It is still an excellent movie. And, sadly, it feels even more relevant today than when it first came out.
I haven’t watched that since renting it from Blockbuster, but damn does it still resonate. So many powerful scenes.
Goodbye to Frederic Forrest:
https://www.tmz.com/2023/06/24/apocalypse-now-frederic-forrest-dead-dies-the-rose/
Think those submersible memes are bad taste, check out the newspapers after the Titanic sank:
https://t.co/JcGPpSFddx
So, humans are just were as shallow and ugly 100 years ago.
4000m is hardly shallow.
Oh come on. Someone had to say it.
I’ll get your coat.
Did they argue about whether or not Jack could also have fit on the raft with Rose?
I think the honest headline here should be “Paul McCartney makes overly vague statement about his use of AI and still refuses to clarify much of anything”.
https://geektyrant.com/news/paul-mccartney-talks-about-the-upcoming-beatles-record-saying-its-all-real
Im still waiting for him to clarify who the walrus is.
Locus Award Winners:
https://t.co/gW0opLTmRL
CP: Long Train Runnin’ – The Doobie Brothers
Saw a bunch of old friends yesterday at Chuck Tomasi’s pool party, including the lovely Hastings!
And then did a Daddy-Daughter Dance with the little one. A fun, full day.
It was great seeing you. I wish we had more time to catch up.
Agreed! I was like reverse Cinderella. The clock struck and I had to get to the ball.
JW: Last Action Hero
One of Arnie’s most underrated films.
I will not be taking questions on the above statement..
I agree.
We saw the Arnold bio series on Netflix recently, it was interesting
But how great could it have been??
See my above statement..no questions!
OK, OK! It is a solid piece of Arnold Braunshweiger’s legacy.
Well Asteroid City was as quirky as you would imagine a Wes Anderson film will be.
Frustrating day.
I would like for Am I Evil? to suddenly make $25 million, please. That would solve a lot.
We’re not quite there yet.
Your factoid for the day: “Ghost in the Shell” is set in 2029.
CP: Uta III – Reincarnation — Kenji Kawai
Maybe the world will change that much in the next 6 years?
S2 of The Bear is as good if not better than S1.
Like how the side characters are getting more attention this season. The cameos are good as well.
Morning Pan
Getting my driver’s license renewed this morning
There is a hell, I’ll spell it. I spell it DMV.
And those of you who’ve been there know precisely what I mean.
Actually, I don’t know what you mean. I often hear stories but I assume it’s an American thing. Like usual, I was in and out in 15 – 20 minutes.
We’re the kids in America. Woah.
It’s called BMV in Ohio.
Just saying.
It’s not America if you’re not enduring a hellishly long wait and adding 20 extra fees on top of your initial costs.
Hubby got his X-ray back and his foot is all better. Now he can “wean himself off the cast”. Whatever the hell that means
Now you tell me!
https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-start-having-more-fun-in-your-busy-life?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Julian Sands body has been found:
https://t.co/OzwDsd8f3z
We knew this would be the outcome, but still sad.
I’m not worried about it with (most) of my friends, but I certainly hope I don’t see anyone trying to compare his tragedy to the billionaire submersible tragedy.
Ticket booked to see the new Indy film tomorrow.
Ok I really enjoyed Indy 5.
I want to see!
We have tickets for the end of July, through Tiffany’s work. Van rightfully laughs at my hope to avoid spoilers until then.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/stan-lee-marvel-veteran-review-disney-doc-1235523843/
Fascinating read. I hadn’t heard about this documentary, but I’m intrigued.
The ‘beauty’ of nature:
https://t.co/4EIPlIOyr5
That’s distributing
So disturbing it made you make a typo.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/gun-anxiety-is-making-these-parents-reconsider-school-family-outings-and-more-what-we-ve-seen-is-that-it-can-happen-and-does-happen-anywhere/ar-AA1daiIO?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=2b98e8bc7ec34b94bfc83b60403c0a39&ei=21
Heartbreaking. Infuriating.
Well, I say this not to play down the level of gun violence in America, it is unacceptable. But discounting suicides by gun, the odds of someone dying by getting shot are about half that of dying in a car accident while driving to the event. Point being, if the car ride isn’t causing you an equal amount of anxiety, perhaps some perspective is in order.
The suicides statistic on gun deaths is an interesting parse.
A fact of most US lives is that we HAVE to drive on a daily basis. We never HAVE to be shot. One is a necessity the other has no rational justification.
You should be happy that gun violence is “only” equal to car accident deaths. Yeah, no. Gun violence is a horror and we need to work to solve it.
It accounts for around half of all deaths from gun violence. Not a happy statistic at all.
CP: Keep Me in Your Heart – Warren Zevon
So about films I don’t give a fuck about:
http://dlvr.it/SrNF4G
Going to take a lot to make up for Tron:Legacy…
Tron: Legacy wasn’t bad, nor was it groundbreaking. It just sort of “was”. I’m hoping for something more compelling the third time out. I’ve probably mentioned it before, but the Tron 2.0 video game was so good, I feel like Tron already got a proper sequel.
Tron: Legacy was only bland and dull. It wasn’t offensively terrible. I’m stoked that there will be a part 3.
I must confess, I’m much more on board for a Tron 3 than an Indy 5
CP: Don’t Fuck Me Up (With Peace And Love) — Cracker
This is the plot line to “Last of Us” right?
https://phys.org/news/2023-06-uncover-crispr-like-animals-human-genome.html
https://peanuts.fandom.com/wiki/Bunny_Wunny
I remember this storyline. Oddly relevant today.
What I most love about being on holiday is waking up and taking a long time to actually get out of bed.
Oh some arsehole writer on the Daily Mail saying a certain person making a cameo in Indy 5 was unrecognisable.
Everybody in the cinema knew who that person was in relation to the Indy series.
Come back when you look that good in your 70s..fucker!
So your useless info for the day was that the actor Clifton Collins Jnr’s Grandad was in Rio Bravo and was this guy:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Gonzalez_Gonzalez
So finally give myself a mental slap for being stupid and ordered a device that helps you put your socks on when you have hip problems.
Strange New Worlds kicking it out of the park again with episode 3.
So is Christopher Walker playing the Emperor?
https://youtu.be/_YUzQa_1RCE
According to IMDB, yes. And Florence Pugh is Princess Irulan.
I. Am. So. Ready.
We liked ep 2 of Secret Invasion a lot more than the first. Good intrigue, and it’s always great to see Samuel L. Jackson doing what he does best.
There’s one bit of plot machinery that feels a little far-fetched, but it’s fine, and it serves the narrative.
Crap joke for the day:
A lady was driving down a country road when she suddenly hit a squirrel. She slammed the brakes and ran back to where the poor critter lay. Frantically looking around, she saw a veterinary office across the road. She scooped up the squirrel and ran inside, where she found a crusty old veterinarian sitting in a plush old chair reading a newspaper and looking mildly disturbed by her sudden entry.
She said, “Sir, can you help me? I seem to have hit this squirrel with my car, and now I don’t know what to do.”
With barely a glance in her direction, the crusty old vet said, “He’s dead. That’ll be $30 for the office visit.”
The lady was a little taken aback, and said “How can you say that he’s dead from all the way over there, without even looking at him? And the nerve, to charge me for an office visit, at that!”
The old vet got up and wordlessly took the squirrel, and laid it on an exam table. Then he left the room, and returned with a mangy old cat that was probably as old as he was. He placed the cat on the exam table by the squirrel. The cat sniffed the squirrel from nose to tail; then let out a forlorn single “meow”, jumped off the table and left. The old vet nodded a couple of times, then left the room again, this time returning with an old Labrador retriever. He lead the dog over to the exam table, and the dog started licking the squirrel up one side and down the other. Finally the dog let out a forlorn “woof”, and walked away.
The old vet looked at the lady and said “I’m sorry ma’am, we did all we could do but he didn’t make it; he’s dead. That’ll be $500.”
The lady was becoming apoplectic at this point and could barely control her rage. “How can you charge me $500 for THAT?!”
“Well,” said the old vet, “it’s $250 for the cat scan and another $250 for the Lab work.”
Morning Pan
Going into the school with hubby this morning.
Is it bring your wife to school day?
It’s there are no kids in today and it’s only a half day so why not spend it together, day
The husband gave me a bright colorful pencil. They give them to the kids on their birthdays. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it but there you go
It’s not too early for your birthday pencil!
Goodbye to Alan Arkin:
https://t.co/I56uWLD917
Damn. He was pretty much always great. Kudos to him on 89 years.
Respect
Goodbye to Pyrex:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1674052861871771650.html
Now our measuring cups will shatter when we drop them.
So, it seems that IndieGoGo was set to default to “anonymous” for all contributors, so that’s made the “Social Media Shoutouts” perk a bit uncertain.
Please message me here or via email if you didn’t intend to be anonymous.
I didn’t intend to be anonymous
Me neither! Just supported the campaign and shared on Facebook.
So today I learnt that in the original Star Wars Trilogy Peter Mayhew spoke English in the scene and was later dubbed as growling:
https://youtu.be/FD9rlb1QAqM
https://youtu.be/CSddlLmuEn0
CP: Peace of Mind — The Grapes of Wrath
Interesting work fact:
Modern browser usage is mainly divided between Chrome, Safari, and Microsoft Edge. Firefox is down to 2% of users.
I am typing this using a Firefox browser.
You rebel you!
Real nerds use Netscape Navigator
kssssshhhhhhhh Sorry I can’t hear you over the dialing of my modem. kkksssssshhh
Those damn 2 percenters.
JW: Nimona:
Beautifully animated film with a great voice cast, it’s on Netflix now and well worth checking out.
Apathy’s a tragedy and boredom is a crime…
https://youtu.be/k1BneeJTDcU
What is your body type?
Brilliant!
Btw – I suspect my body type is comic sans
Well that is concerning:
https://t.co/5HfRFz5Ln1
For Mother’s Day I took one of those Ancestry tests. I got the results today. No surprise, my mother is a liar and we have no idea who my father really is.
It was interesting to look at and I’m glad I did it, but I didn’t really learn anything new.
Will Ancestry notify you if someone in the future takes the test and shows as a family match for you?
It is officially hot today.
So it appears a lot of people in the UK are seeing ‘rate limit exceeded’ error when trying to use Twitter.
Including me.
So I’m still in limbo in regards to the knee op so it’s looking very unlikely that I will be able to go to the meet-up this year.
Don’t exclude me from the emails though.
Pulling you out of the email chain because of this injury would be … a knee jerk reaction.
I’ll get your coat 🙂
Ouch
Conspiracies about sex cults are nothing new it seems:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/07/conspiracy-theory-burned-convent-down/674599/
Yes!
https://t.co/etg9BKOL3D
Canada is :
https://youtu.be/hBJgGE79HNQ
yup
What I learnt today:
Kurt Russell turned down starring in Highlander to play Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Littke China.
What I learnt today:
Kurt Russell turned down starring in Highlander to play Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Little China.
I did not know that. I guess I’m fine with the way things turned out.
Christopher Lambert is kind of a terrible actor, but he was a perfect Connor McLeod.
Kurt would have been better, but I’m glad we got him as Jack Burton.
JW: On the Count of Three.
Man that definitely put the black in black comedy.
Bridge of Spies is playing on the tv and my opinion this is one of Tom Hanks best films is unwavering.
Still not happy Mark Rylance didn’t use a Geordie accent for Abel though, since the guy was born and grew up on Tyneside.
Are you not aware of Dragnet??
Only through the Stan Freberg skit of the original series.
+50 for referencing Stan Freberg
Better than “The Man With One Red Shoe”?
Super skeptical of Silo in the beginning, but it pulled me along to a few pretty exciting climactic episodes to end season 1.
Like Snowpiercer in many ways, you just have to take a deep breath, accept the whacked out premise, and keep watching.
It all makes sense in the end. I thought it was wacked-out too, but by the end, I more or less changed my mind.
I also kept noticing the name “Billy Postlethwaite” in the end credits, and it turns out that yes, he’s the son of the late, great character actor, Pete Postlethwaite. Looks nothing like him – – but he’s the long-haired deputy from the lower floors.
So Nova is being adapted by Neil Gaiman, I have not read the book myself unlike this author:
https://garethlpowell.substack.com/p/nova-level-literary-fireworks
https://t.co/lgRrHUriYT
I like Gareth L. Powell! I’ve never read that Samuel R. Delaney book.
Watched “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” last night.
I enjoyed it very much.
Fun film.
I finally caved and upgraded my Google storage. $19.99/year won’t break the piggy bank.
I was spending a lot of time deleting e-mails to go from 96% full to 93% full, when it’s the word and image files that are the real issue, especially with the Am I Evil? project files. I’ll still delete clutter, but now I can spend less time worrying about running out of storage space.
Having friends over this morning. It’s been awhile since we’ve played Starfareres of Catan
A S1 refresher for Foundation before S2 drops:
http://dlvr.it/SrgB1W
Currently listening to Stan Freberg’s – “The United States of America”
… as any true American should on this day
Available here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj8PxTk74cc&list=OLAK5uy_muWoGEKWXdfousCL8Yx7kT9mN_DJOgCw0
Probably one of the best musicals to never be on stage.
Besides being funny, it has some great musicians on it.
My dad remembers when it came out and they wouldn’t play it on the radio where he was living (Boulder, Co) because it made fun of American historical figures.
Off to the RCMP after lunch. Because he deals with kids, hubby has to get a background check done on himself regularly
Does he get to ride a moose?
No. But they have to take his fingerprints
I hope everyone enjoyed the 4th.
This years seems to have been the worst I’ve ever seen for the amateur hour fireworks around the neighborhood. The only part that bothered me were M80s after midnight.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/05/authors-file-a-lawsuit-against-openai-for-unlawfully-ingesting-their-books
It will be interesting to see how this shakes out.
Old article, but it’s a little distressing:
https://www.avclub.com/much-of-early-film-history-has-been-lost-forever-1798253654
90% of movies before 1929!
An in depth article about the Titan disaster:
https://t.co/chrX4NTFTe
Well.
Went to the effort of going to see the new Indy Jones flick tonight. First trip I’ve made to the Cinema in maybe a year.
Theater was dirty with very few employees.
Best part was that with 20 minutes left, the picture went out. The audio kept going and after a minute or so of listening to spoilers we walked out.
Maybe the projectionists opened the final film reel and their faces all melted?
Hilarity aside, that is an awful movie-going story. I hope the theater gave you money back plus free passes for another showing. At least.
So….. Threads?
Haven’t looked at it yet
Be careful if you want to delete your account as your instagram account also gets deleted.
Yes, but you can “suspend” Threads so nothing is shown without it affecting your instagram
Another problem is that I don’t use my real name on Twitter but do on instagram, so my threads account uses my real name.
Means I can’t be as anonymous on threads as I can be on twitter.
I have not yet signed up for Threads. I doubt if I ever will. I’m planning to step back a bit from social media after tomorrow.
Not even once.
Kitty gets her arthritis shot this morning. Kitty hates it
A history of Nintendo’s Game and Watch series:
http://retrododo.com/the-history-of-nintendos-game-watch-handhelds/
We had to go back to the RCMP today. They accidentally filled out hubby as “female” on the form. Luckily, the same person was there so it was easy enough to get it changed.
I was today years old when I learned that William Hootkins, the guy played Porkins in Star Wars, was also the “Top Men” guy at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
He was also a crooked cop in the 1989 Batman.
He died in 2005, but would have been 75 today.
And so, in just over 24 hours, I’ll be done forever with Am I Evil? crowdfunding.
I’ll be busy as heck for the following few weeks, getting the Special Edition copies of the book printed and making the perks, and getting everything shipped out, and other finalized versions of AIE-related things. . .
After all THAT is done, I can start thinking about other things again.
For anyone who was wondering about Martha Quinn:
https://80splusradio.iheart.com/featured/martha-quinn/content/2023-07-05-martha-quinn-is-back-opens-up-about-her-health-journey/
I’m glad this seems to have turned out well for her.
I wasn’t as I have no idea who she is.
Martha Quinn was everyone’s favorite VJ in the early days of MTV.
No idea?
What… are you like twenty years old or something!
MTV was never that big over here, didn’t know Adam Curry was a VJ till he started doing a podcast.
For my birthday, I did something silly and ordered myself a Majima rubber duck.
https://www.segashop.co.uk/products/official-yakuza-majima-tubbz-cosplaying-duck-collectable?_pos=1&_sid=7bc56ed35&_ss=r
I hope it still floats.
Was this comment autocorrected!?
No, the comment looks correct to me. Majima is a gaming character
https://yakuza.fandom.com/wiki/Goro_Majima
Just wondering if “duck” was the autocorrected part.
Okay, that gets a golf clap.
Watching The Witcher S3E3 and still not sure what is going on:
We’ve seen the first couple of episodes. There is a moment that makes you go WTF
People are saying Severance but the trailer is giving me Brazil vibes:
https://youtu.be/iEbvLxU8vMI
The making of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragin:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1677245710796718083.html
CW: The X-Files S7 E21
The genie episode, my fav episode of the entire series and the only episode I’ve rewatch multiple times.
I’m a sucker for a genie story and only today I realised it was written and directed by Vince Gilligan…THAT Vince Gilligan of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.,,
I think I saw that episode when it first aired and then never again and yet it still sticks with me. So I guess it must be one of my favorites as well.
Canada is 13. Not bad actually
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Peace_Index#Academic_references
37 for the UK..ouch!
Take that, Brazil!
**EEEEexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaallllllllllllllllllleeeee**********
Ok, watched the first two episodes of My Adventures with Superman, the new WB animated series.
Enjoyed them and have to agree with the twitter crowd that choosing the guy who voices Jerry in Rick and Morty as the bad guy was a great choice.
Quite catchy:
https://youtu.be/yMR45cZbvDw
I think I recognized all but a couple of the videos parodied in the video.
Bonus points because it parodied a Weird Al video.
All y’all been quiet this weekend! I have too – – but only on the internets.
Tiffany and I did the rare grown-ups night out last night, saw Drunk Shakespeare, which was fun. (A cast of 5, one of them downs a bunch of shots, then they all run through a Shakespeare play. None of them take it seriously. We got Macbeth).
Morning Pan
Friends coming over today. We’ll be playing Castles of Burgundy
That is depressing:
https://t.co/rV3aqLlZt0
Interesting, but no surprise given the obsolesce of so much hardware.
Perhaps this is why Square Enix is planning more remasters?
https://kotaku.com/ff-tactics-xenogears-vagrant-story-remaster-rpgs-1850621353
CP: Help Me Willie Nelson! — Humbird
Podcasting turns 20!
https://podnews.net/update/podcast-20th-birthday-history
Wow. Time flies.
And FWIW, Adam Curry was no one’s favorite MTV VJ.
(He became more likable as he got older. I suspect MTV was doing some forced image molding on him)
CP: innocent arrogance — BiSH
CW: The Midwich Cuckoos E1
This is the recent adaption from Sky, with seven episodes I feel they might be stretching it out a bit as the book was 1950s short.
Manny Coto has died:
https://t.co/SUZMYCSfmo
Bummer! I’d thought that GotG was out for rental, but no, it’s only available to purchase. So we just did a few eps of What We Do in the Shadows instead.
And I sent some AIE perks emails.
CP: Estranged Fruit — Fishbone & NOFX
Ugh.
Our cell phone company was bought out by another company. Getting transferred over is a process.
Really digging Yvette Young’s guitar music.
On the whole social media micromessaging thing:
https://www.pastemagazine.com/threads-bluesky-twitter-replacements-meta-instagram
I NEVER liked Twitter, not even when it was in its early days. If I were still engaging in that kind of thing, I’d have left Twitter the moment the human cesspool took charge of it. However, I don’t feel compelled to jump on any other service. I’ll participate on Facebook, and I have a Mastodon account. That’s probably good enough for me.
Ok old man.
Ok old man.
“Old man yells at cloud.”
https://deadline.com/2023/07/writers-strike-hollywood-studios-deal-fight-wga-actors-1235434335/
There’s nothing concrete in this article, but it paint a pretty grim picture.
It’s official now, right?
Happy birthday, Energizer Bunny! I hope it’s a great day of fun and being pampered.
Happy Hoppy Birthday, Energizer Bunny!
Happy Birthday TEB!
Place your bets, which will be a bigger hit at the box office:
Barbie
Or
Oppenheimer
I’m betting Barbie.
Thanks for the wishes. I’m going out to buy some new jeans, cheesecake, and then pick up Taco Time and Slurpees for lunch.
After that it’s video games and we’ll stream a movie.
All in all, a good, relaxing day to be had.
That sounds pretty perfect!
Happy Birthday!!
Have a great day! Sounds fun!
Happy birthday TEB!
CP: Short Change Hero — The Heavy
HB TEB
Some of these are hilarious:
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/asked-ai-europeans-think-americans-201700212.html
Looks like it’s goodbye to Anchor Brewing:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/12/business/anchor-brewing-shutting-down/index.html
That’s a shame. I know last month they were ceasing distributing outside California, so I had hoped they would avoid shutting down. One can only hope an angel investor will save the company.
I never enjoyed their beers, but that’s not really the point. This is a shame.
I also didn’t know they were “America’s oldest craft brewery.”
I don’t agree with all of the “it’s too slow-paced” griping about Secret Invasion. . . but. . . if you’re going to break up the tension with a slam-bang action scene, then you gotta do a little better than that. #notaspoiler
Temptation:
https://youtu.be/9s8MWrY-zJc
O.o
Thing I learned today: The whooshing sound of the Enterprise in ST:TOS was ad libbed by Sandy Courage and is just his voice doing sssssHHHHHHhhhhhh.
Next, you’ll be telling me the original tie fighter sound was sampled from a dying air conditioner.
Ok. I won’t tell you anything about that. 😛
The husband and I realized most of our guests come in the winter when it’s actually dark at night. Today we hung blackout curtains in the guest room so our upcoming guests won’t be disturbed by our very long, sunny evenings.
They may prefer to sleep hanging from the ceiling.
The new episode of Strange Worlds was extremely silly but a lot of fun.
+New
I saw the new MI film, it was fun.
One aspect I did like was the original tv tune seemed to feature much more often than previous films. Although it’s been a while since I saw 6 so maybe my memory is betraying me.
CP: Paradox — Survive Said The Prophet
On the closing of Anchor Brewing; “Its pretty frustrating to see their press release take the typical SF cop-out and blame it on “high production costs” to piggy back off of people thinking sf is in a state of decay. When in reality a big huge foreign business bought a local staple, tried to brute force it through their own business practice, failed almost immediately and now have to liquidate a 130 year old brand. Classic.” Dave Hahn Madrone Bartender.
I can’t verify his claim, but it’s an interesting wrinkle.
It’s closer to what I heard. But of course, I don’t have any data to back up that claim.
The original article that was shared here was actually pretty crystal clear in blaming Saporro for the demise. Seems like this person is using any statement they can find in the article to bring their personal torch to bear on the issue.
“Another problem has been Sapporo, the Japanese beer company that bought the brand in 2017. Employees complained to VinePair last month about Sapporo’s alleged mismanagement and lack of understanding of craft beer in the United States. In addition, a 2021 rebrand of Anchor was criticized for pivoting too far away from the brand’s classic look.”
Guess whose shiny new passport just showed up today? I also reserved my flight and my room at the Airdrie Best Western within the past few weeks, and ordered new walking shoes tonight. I’m excited for MMMMeetup! 🙂
Jack – I, too, caved in and paid for the Google storage upgrade just before my May trip. I didn’t want to run out of room for photo storage.
It’s rather smoky out this morning.
The magic basket
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqQgDwA0BNU&ab_channel=TroyKinne
Ooo, what would happen if I put that in the sink??
After two years the Play.Date console I ordered finally arrived.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playdate_(console)
The display is not backlit and it’s pissing down outside and rather dark.
Ah well there is tomorrow.
I’m a Barbie Girl performed on a three voice fugue:
https://youtu.be/qsE7H6YPfco
Yes are are, sometimes.
I support WGA and SGA 100%, but Matt Damon probably shouldn’t be saying, “We gotta get what we’re worth,” considering the paychecks he gets per movie. The bad guys will point to the small minority of mega-rich actors and call them greedy, when this is really about cutting corners and boxing people out of making a livable wage at every single job title, with the exception of “Executive.”
As for the WGA side, I saw a factoid stating that the average big studio writer makes about $69K per year; Bob Iger makes $70K per day. If true, then this a discrepancy that needs to be corrected.
And it’s also a high-profile microcosm of every industry in the Capitalist world right now.
However… cynical me believes that the bad guys will win out in the end of this – – and all labor conflicts to come. They have all the cards, at this point, and they know that most of us will consume whatever scab product are shoved onto our screens.
Worth noting that 69k a year in LA is not going to give you “the high life”
It was one of the ‘free’ games on Playstation plus and really enjoying playing this game:
https://t.co/MVvThdsDAR
Relationship wise I was so glad you could go for the more progressive option..
A brief history of Morse Code:
https://t.co/HqeUZvuYVE
I am considering going to a local dive and hearing some local Punk bands tonight.
I wonder what the kids consider “punk” these days.
If you wore leather and spiked your hair into a mohawk, then we must, must see the pictures.
So I went and was pretty underwhelmed.
4 bands. Each had their moments but on the whole, not so much.
Hard to put my finger on it but it felt kind of fake. Like these kids were putting on a show. The musicians ranged from their 20’s to 30’s with one or two “old guys” thrown in.
I’m not sure how many in the crowd would even know who the Ramones were.
Anyway, glad I went out and did this because I have been telling myself for a couple years that one day I would.
Don’t think I will be going back though.
Could be fun:
https://bit.ly/3ObkNQw
Ernie Hudson!
CP: Try – Madeline Maye
https://madelinemaye.bandcamp.com/track/try
How the box art for PoP lead to it’s success:
https://t.co/X0FX3e1ijb
We watched Renfield last night. It was fun
Interesting
https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/news/ex-apple-engineers-develop-disappearing-computer-pin-size-device/
The four endings of Futurama:
https://t.co/OJOVdjFw5e
Get your name included on the Europa Clipper:
http://go.nasa.gov/MessageInABottle
Yeah, I heard about this a bit ago. John and I both signed on.
Took the little one to Elemental. The “Up” short at the beginning was pretty sweet.
The feature was. . . fine. This is not the aggressively-creative, consistently amazing Pixar of yesteryear. Sure, there are some clever bits.
And hey, Pixar: we get it. Parents shouldn’t burden their kids with their own expectations. Message received.
I love animation, but I have a harder and harder time watching the same coming of age tale told over and over and over again. I get that new audiences need to hear that message.
From Nick Jack Pappas (I don’t know him):
Hi, all. I write jokes for TV, but not long ago I was a financial analyst. I had my Series 7.
For those who say Fran Drescher or any SAG-AFTRA member should stop whining and appreciate what they have, let me give you a lesson in capitalism.
The WGA and SAG-AFTRA are dealing mainly with publicly traded companies, companies that have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders. Netflix, for example, has 88.21% of their shares held by institutional investors – banks, hedge funds, insurance companies, etc.
This morning, Netflix stock hit a 52-week high. They made institutional investors alone $106+ billion dollars this year.
$106 BILLION.
Fran Drescher, for her entire life, is worth $25 million.
It’s easy to get mad at Ted Sarandos or David Zaslav or Bob Iger, but they get paid so much because their only job is to make rich people richer.
The WGA and SAG-AFTRA aren’t fighting against rich CEOs. They’re fighting against an entire system incentivized to exploit workers.
A-list actors get paid so much because they’re worth it. Someone has done the math. You don’t have a poster of Bob Iger hanging up in your room. You don’t binge watch a show with David Zaslav. You don’t go to Comic Con to meet faceless billionaires.
You pay to see stars.
Not to mention that, in reality, 87% of SAG-AFTRA union members don’t qualify for health insurance.
How much do they have to make to qualify? $26,000 a year.
These are working class people, just like you.
The wealthiest 1% hold 53% of ALL stocks. The top 10% hold 88.6% of ALL stocks. Every dollar these media companies don’t give to a writer or actor, they hand to millionaires and billionaires.
When you say actors and writers are spoiled, you’re on the wrong side of history.
Thanks for sharing that.
It’s true and it doesn’t get said enough.
Any time some group that isn’t part of the 1 or 2% tries to rise up and make their lives better at the expense of a few billionaires, those profiting from keeping them down will find the handful of exceptions and parade them in front of the media as supposed examples of the thousands you will never see or hear of.
I feel like another important takeaway is about Ted Sarandos, David Zaslav, Bob Iger. They have absolutely played villains in this conflict (see what I did there?), but they’re just the public faces of the oppressors.
And sure, there are some wealthy actors and writers on the picket lines, but whatever their motive is, greed, ego, attention, the cause, human decency – – whatever! – – they’re fighting to keep creative jobs viable for future generations of humans who weren’t born into wealthy or famous families.
https://geektyrant.com/news/ashley-eckstein-strongly-encourages-star-wars-fans-to-watch-animated-shows-before-ahsoka-is-released
Ashley Eckstein says “I highly recommend that you take the time to watch Clone Wars, and watch Star Wars Rebels, and even Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi. Because if you don’t, you’re going to miss out on crucial, crucial backstory that you really need to know to fully enjoy the Ahsoka series”
So, I won’t be watching the Ahsoka series. I haven’t had the inclination to watch the animated stuff that is even more targeted to children than the movies. So I’m likely not going to get it.
Not going to watch the animated series, still going to watch Ashoka.
I need to clear up a misconception: The animated series of Clone Wars and Rebels aren’t anymore targeted to children than the original movies and prequels.
These two series are excellent and I highly recommend them, though I warn people about bearing with the Jar Jar episodes in Clone Wars. But, you are free to watch what you want of course.
I agree with ditto’s take – – mostly. There are moments that are definitely aimed at the after-school crowd.
I complained loudly about the first season of Rebels for this reason, but they set the course right after that and produced some truly great moments.
I still think I didn’t get my point across clearly, so I’ll try again. Lucas has always been clear that kids have been his primary target audience. That’s not to say he’s not making fare that adults won’t enjoy, but he is always thinking first of how kids will react to his movies. And that is exactly the same in these animated shows.
Agree that kids were always the primary audience. However, I feel like Episodes IV and V were not targeted equally at children and adults. Return of the Jedi is where I feel the dividing line is set. Before that, both adults and children can equally enjoy things. After that, children have been targeted at the expense of adult viewing. This is one of the reasons I like Rogue One so much (but I digress). I tried watching some of the animated series and they always seem to revolve around CW-like teen age drama and/or kids learning life lessons. I have been convinced to watch Tales of the Jedi, so I’ll start there and see where it goes from there.
Oh, and of course, the Genndy Tartakovsky Clone Wars was brilliant. So I’m not necessarily anti-animated SW. Just have to find the right set of episodes from the right series to draw me in. And I have to find the hundreds of hours to watch everything.
Time is always an issue. I get it.
I think Ed will agree with me that the final 4 episode arc of Clone Wars is some of the best Star Wars out there. Hands down. And I love Rogue One.
This is a conundrum I have pondered for sometime without ever reaching a conclusion.
When someone creates media, that makes you a huge fan as a youth you generally want to continue consuming that entertainment as you get older. The problem is what you want from your entertainment as an adult tends to be different than what you wanted as a child.
So what is the content producer supposed to do? Do they change the Contant to continue to serve their original fan base or do they continue as they started and try to attract a whole new generation of fans?
I don’t know the answer.
I do know that I have no interest in animation aimed at kids unless it’s really really well done (PIXAR used to be able do this). It’s not that I am against Star Wars aimed at kids. It just doesn’t amuse me enough to give it my time.
I have found that there is a lot of “children’s animation” out there that really has the ability to appeal to adults as well. As a college student, I really loved Ren & Stimpy without needing the excuse of having kids around. When my kids were growing up, I found a whole new era of cartoons that I was able to really, really enjoy such as the Power Puff Girls, Invader Zim, CatDog… all those 90s Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon cartoons. And Cartoons like Samurai Jack and Avatar the Last Airbender really seems to speak to the adult audience exceptionally well. I would love to find the time to get around to watching the newer “children’s animation” like Gumball and Regular Show, which I hear are just as bizarre and out there. I think it’s absolutely possible to make animation that speaks to younger and older audiences. It just takes an effort and wanting to write that way.
I haven’t read the article, but I strongly remember the time when this album was dominant.
https://www.vinyl8.com/blogs/news/the-vinyl-brew-the-verve-urban-hymns
I’m glad I read the article. There was a pleasant surprise near the end.
I hadn’t heard about that! Good news, indeed.
Maths:
https://t.co/rHqRCHSnyr
I love my husband dearly but, when he’s home, it really messes with my rhythm.
Just wait till he retires.
The forgotten Camille Claudel:
http://womensartblog.wordpress.com/2016/07/30/cam
CP: Alive — Poliça
Renfield=completely over the top. But some gory laughs. I especially liked the nods to the 1931 Dracula movie.
Today we are are redoing the seal around our washroom sink. Life is so exciting
A reminder that Tom Cruise isn’t a friend of writers and other actors:
https://wp.me/pc8uak-1lCL0Y
Apologies for being Mr. Contrary, especially since I’m always down to play Tom Cruise Crazy, but that article isn’t all that damning. Saying he was “noncommittal to picketing, but offered to help in other ways” isn’t great, but he’s not standing with the Igers.
I’m following this news event fairly closely. I just don’t see the writers and actors winning. Big Money holds all of the cards, and all of the – – money, and has none of the morality or the interest in art or in lower-level people’s survival, and has nothing to lose. Their opponents in SAG-AFTRA (minus the celebrity exceptions) will all starve in a protracted standoff.
Writers (mostly) want to create art, execs want to manufacture cheap product. Execs see a future when AI will make films for pennies, monitored by one minimum-wage button-pusher, as opposed to teams of high-priced creative. How many more billions in their pockets, if they can replace millionaires with minimum-wage? They’re not going to cave.
Not to mention that actors in SAG get a portion of movie proceeds, so Tom Cruise asking that actors still be allowed to promote their movies is still on the side of the actors. That being said, I’m not a fan of Tom Cruise mostly for his Scientology and anti-actual-psychology stances. He’s actively promoting things that hurt people and asking them not to do things that will actually help them. No bueno.
I don’t think the general public understands what they are poised to loose at this point in the timeline.
For decades now, the studio system has leaned heavily into producing “product”. They have a formula that makes a known amount of dollars and they try to tare apart every script and rebuild it to that formula.
What keeps it from all being the same 5 films over and over again are the humans in the mix. Talented people on the production teams who make a lot of little changes here and there, directors who start a film and then try to hold out to do it their way, Actors who only agree to do a film if the studio lets them do a future project of THEIR choice.
When all these people with the decades of know how to take “product” and squeeze art out of it are forced out, replaced by interns and computers and AI … we will have nearly nothing but “product”.
IMHO- Society never recovered from the rise of “Reality TV”, which blossomed from a writers strike several decades ago.
Booted up the PS3 slim, the original Mirror’s Edge still rocks.
Flash Gordon is still on the hard drive.
https://variety.com/lists/best-action-movies/
I’m OK with most of the list, although I nearly closed the tab when I saw Top Gun: Maverick.
CP: Night City Aliens — The Armed & Homeschool Dropouts
Catching up after a few days – yes, the animated shows, particularly Clone Wars and Rebels, are some fine and worthy Star Wars content, I don’t care how old you are.
Do you have to have seen them to enjoy Ashoka? No, but you’re not going to enjoy it as much as those of us who have seen the development of the Ashoka character through those shows.
What about the Bad Batch? I liked those guys, but haven’t been burning to watch the show.
I enjoyed Bad Batch, although the animation style was rather off putting at first.
I enjoyed Bad Batch, although the animation style was rather off putting at first.
Of course, there’s also people like me who sees hundreds of hours of animated Star Wars they haven’t watched and probably won’t watch simply because of time. Too much TV, not enough hours in my life.
I wasn’t super enthused about the Bad Batch as first, but it has developed nicely. Both seasons have been solid so far.
The origin of Barbenheimer:
https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/barbenheimer-origin-barbie-oppenheimer-double-feature/
RIP Athena, our corn snake. :'(
CP: The Only Heartbreaker — Mitski
Kevin Mitnick has passed away from cancer.
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/las-vegas-nv/kevin-mitnick-11371668
So I’m guessing this won’t be covered by the Oppenheimer film:
https://youtu.be/hH1IfbKikLg
Dug a grave today in 112 degree heat, how about you?
My daughter is pretty broken up. It’s awful, the snake should have lived many more years.
Those times are miserable in tolerable weather much less that heat.
I feel for you guys.
Singer Tony Bennett dies aged 96 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66271090
Roger Waters reinterpretation of Money.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUVmeYgo1Iw
Objectively, it’s an interesting novelty. He sounds more like Leonard Cohen than himself here. My kneejerk reaction is to reject this, but I can appreciate what he’s going for.
I’ll probably never listen to it again.
Still one of my fav westerns:
https://t.co/Fktwfytwvx
The two sides of Tomb Raider:
https://youtu.be/WA-7J7bbiXQ
The classic English fast food has taken a slide towards oblivion:
https://t.co/O7mtETuKHL
When will the cost of simple existence stop skyrocketing?
If I ever make it to your part of the world, this will be the first thing I intend to order. I can’t remember if you’re a fan?
I’m a fan of the chips the fish much less so.
Quite the storm during the night. Even had a short blackout. Had to reset all the clocks this morning
Found a new swell podcast-
“The Bottom Forty”
Format is a radio broadcast. Music.
Some old like Talking Heads or Joy Division
But then new stuff that works with it. Even some stuff off of band camp, so like really new stuff. So far I am digging it.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bottom-forty/id1531283691?i=1000621415458
Definitely sounds interesting. Just added it to my podcast list. I’ve definitely been struggling to find new bands that I really want to get into. I’m mostly good at finding old bands that I missed and/or just never got too deep into and geeking out on them for a while.
So this week I bought Planet of Lana on Steam.
The reviews have compared it to Limbo but the lovely visuals and low poly count of the main character reminds me of Another World on the Atari ST. Anyway as a puzzle platformers go it’s pretty good.
So asked the Bing AI search fpr the best games for the Atari ST:
The Atari ST was a popular home computer and gaming platform in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It had a large library of games, many of which are still fondly remembered by retro gamers today. Some of the best Atari ST games according to various sources are:
Prince of Persia12: A classic platformer that introduced fluid animation and realistic physics to the genre. The player had to escape from a dungeon and rescue the princess in 60 minutes, avoiding traps, guards and puzzles along the way.
Populous12: A god game that let the player shape the land, influence the people and wage war against rival deities. The game featured 500 different worlds to conquer, each with its own terrain, climate and challenges.
Super Sprint12: A top-down racing game that was based on an arcade hit. The game supported up to four players on one screen, competing on various tracks with obstacles, power-ups and hazards. The game was fast-paced and fun, with simple but addictive gameplay.
Lotus Turbo Challenge II3: A point-to-point racing game that was praised for its smooth scrolling, realistic sound effects and varied scenery. The game featured 32 tracks across different countries, weather conditions and terrains. The game also had a split-screen mode for two players.
The Chaos Engine1: A steampunk-themed run-and-gun game that was developed by the Bitmap Brothers. The game had six playable characters, each with their own skills and weapons, who had to fight their way through a world corrupted by a machine called the Chaos Engine. The game had co-op mode for two players and featured impressive graphics and sound.
Dungeon Master45: A groundbreaking role-playing game that pioneered real-time combat, 3D graphics and mouse control in the genre. The player had to lead a party of four adventurers through a labyrinthine dungeon, facing monsters, traps and puzzles. The game had a complex magic system, character development and inventory management.
Lemmings45: A puzzle-platformer that became one of the most popular and influential games of all time. The player had to guide a group of lemmings, small creatures that followed each other mindlessly, to an exit on each level. The player had to use various skills, such as digging, building and exploding, to overcome obstacles and prevent the lemmings from dying.
These are just some of the best Atari ST games that you can play today. There are many more games that you can explore on websites like Atarimania4 or My Abandonware4. You can also use emulators like Hatari or Steem to run Atari ST games on your modern computer.
I hope this helps you find some great Atari ST games to enjoy. Happy gaming!
The only one I’ve never played was Lotus Turbo Challenge, can’t really argue with te rest of the games as they were all good.
Projectyle, Arkanoid, Barbarian, Barbarian II. . .
I don’t remember Chaos Engine, but it sounds cool. A Steampunk game in the 1980s?
Yup, well in the 90s:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chaos_Engine
Man, the Bitmap Bros ruled that machine. I forgot about Speedball and Speedball II – – also both ST (and Amiga) classics.
This is a bummer.
https://gizmodo.com/andor-season-2-production-paused-sag-strikes-star-wars-1850663700
So this guy figured out the US was building an atomic bomb due to sudden absence of nuclear fission research papers. He also alerted Stalin to his reasons that led to the Soviet atomic bomb project:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgy_Flyorov
CW: Strange New Worlds S2E7
The crossover with Lower Decks is fun.
The history of the samosa:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1683396793596358657.html
The history of the Mimosa
https://makemeacocktail.com/blog/history-mimosa-cocktail/
Buck’s Fizz gives me a hangover the next day.
*cough*
Fuck’s Biz?
We’re suppose to get record breaking heat today. Huzzah?
CP: What Sarah Said — Death Cab For Cutie
Obstacles, obstacles, obstacles, obstacles. obstacles.
(I’m alarmed and concerned about a new potential blocker for AIE)
I think we’ll play some Cat Lady later today
Enjoyed Oppenheimer, the sex scene was pointless but you do get to see Florence Pugh’s tits /eye roll
I am become interested.
now, I am become tits, the destroyer of PG.
Listening to 2 90s albums from stars of the 70s and 80s with low expectations:
David Bowie: Hours
Prince: (Love Symbol)
Both are better than I expected, although both get a little bit schmaltzy with the Soft Rock touches. I don’t want to raise any alarms, but I suspect there may be some sexual innuendo in the Prince songs.
C64 Ghosbusters theme with vocals added:
https://youtu.be/puJy6IlHmOA
I may have posted this before but it’s still cool.
The elder daughter is into vampire stuff. She could never get into the Interview with the Vampire novel, and we were all appalled at the new miniseries, so we tried the 1994 movie tonight.
I think she was still bored by it.
Yes, it is a slow, emo brood of a movie. In retrospect, Tom Cruise is great as Lestat, Brad Pitt is great as Louis, and Kirsten Dunst is incredibly great as Claudia. It’s a shame we didn’t get the proper sequels to this. That’s when the fun would have really begun.
And. . . We have some deeply-troubling family health shit going on. Nothing inside our house, but still weighing heavily on us.
Not that there’s ever good timing, but the timing is terrible.
So there’s that too.
*hugs*
Sorry man.
You should Google Ryan Gosling
Fireworks!
Off to see the film today at the arty cinema, hopefully will be quieter.
It works for anything Barbie related.
CP: My Heart Belongs to You – Amazulu
Goodbye to Sinead O’Connor:
https://t.co/00uq4SjSHr
What an incredible talent lost. What a voice. What a tortured, damaged person she was. RIP
Wow!
She is another one of those artists that I hated when she was “popular”, mostly from her persona I guess but later on I came to really appreciate/enjoy her music.
Gawd I’m beginning to really hate solicitors.
Awful 1: The news is bad.
Awful 2: So yes, AIE is officially/unofficially fucking blocked.
That sucks, Jack. You have my sympathies, not that it helps.
It’s appreciated, ditto! And it does help.
Sorry dude, that blows. As someone who is ignorant of all the issues involved, would a self-publish route be an option? I’ve purchased a few books from https://www.lulu.com/ and had a good experience.
No, the project is being blocked by a person (I hate to vague it any further than that, just being prudent. It’s no one in Diamond Head).
There will be a way to either placate them or work around them, but I’m just frustrated at the never-ending delays. And venting here.
I absolutely intend to look into indy publishing options in the future, I just want to finish up the IndieGoGo books and perks.
Ah, that makes more sense. Still sorry about the delays.
Much appreciated!
I’ll cut the vague venting here, but we did get better news about our family member today. The next months will suck, but will hopefully lead to a full recovery.
An essay from a friend of mine:
https://jetse.substack.com/p/movies-from-the-seventies
I’ve only skimmed it. . . . He got one detail wrong about Star Wars, but I get the point he was going for.
Yeah, I’m getting tired of movies where every scene is choreographed down to the last nanosecond. There’s an organic quality to the movies of the seventies that is often lost on current films. I’ll point out there were aliens shown in Close Encounters, just briefly at the end.
CP: Don’t Mess With Me — Brody Dalle
CP: Leaving The Light — Genesis Owusu
I told hubby he should get an Iron Maiden or Ozzy rubber duck but he wasn’t going for it
https://www.justgeek.com/collections/music-tubbz
I’m not spending $25 on a rubber duck either.
(funnier response)
Was this comment autocorrected?
This is lovely.
https://www.revolvermag.com/music/see-sinead-oconnor-sing-stunning-cover-nirvanas-all-apologies-1995
I’m taking over Van’s job:
A group of nuns is painting their convent on a hot summer day. Mother Superior tells them to hurry up and finish because the blind man is coming. The nuns get so hot from working in the heat that one suggests they take their tops off to cool down. Another says, ‘OK, I guess it’s just a blind man that’s coming.’ The blind man arrives and says, ‘Nice tits. Where do you want the blinds?'”
Q: They were wearing how many tops?
A: Nun.
They might get out of the habit.
I remember this skit when it first aired.
https://boingboing.net/2023/07/27/penn-and-teller-performed-the-best-magic-trick-ever-on-snl-in-1986.html?utm_content=buffer96037&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer&fbclid=IwAR1H_EjsvNrSvrNlh7-aA-5PELkqT9txcBcZ77MyVS6Hi34mOv842E_OsAM
You need to watch until the end.
I believe I saw it live as well.
Always been a big fan of those lads.
The Arnold Conans are on Netflix, although “Destroyer” is leaving in 2 days.
It took me a few sessions to get through “Barbarian,” but that movie is still great. Well. . . . it’s great, with a few terrible B-movie moments. What was the point of that silly random witch encounter?
I didn’t actually watch “Destroyer,” just skipped to a few of the scenes I remembered from childhood. Wow, it is a terrible, terrible, terrible movie. I remember it being awful, but still somewhat likable.
No.
Although – – good grief, was Sarah Douglas gorgeous. . . Terrible actress, but wow! *cough*
CW: Joy Ride
You know you are getting old when Daniel Dae Kim is playing middle aged dad roles (eeek!)
Started a rewatch of the Kenobi tv series, still digging it.
What I learned from the movie Sisu, never leave home without your pick axe
Sisu is the name of the sweet-natured water dragon from Raya and the Last Dragon.
Sisu is totally bat poop crazy but a fun popcorn flick
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14846026/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Die Hard with Nazis, saw it a while back, not too shabby.
I recall the trailer. It got a lot of comparisons to John Wick.
I’m kinda burning out on the “lone badass wants to be left alone, is wronged, wipes out thousands” genre, but I’m still fully down for Sisu.
Viewing report:
Rewatched The Iron Giant, first time for the little one. My god, this movie came out 24 years ago. Every bit as great today as the first time. I hope they let this one stand alone forever. No sequels, no spin-offs, no remakes, no series delving into his origins, etc, etc, etc.
Rewatched it last year and it truly is a wonderful film.
The weekend gone I rewatched Into the Spider-verse, another fantastic animated film. I must have left the cinema early because this was the first time I saw the post credit sequence. Did they really have Oscar Isaac ready to go for the sequel back in 2018?
CP: Detectorists – Johnny Flynn
Loki S2 trailer is out:
https://youtu.be/Sb8xG9xqCLI
…and it’s goodbye to Paul Reubens:
https://bit.ly/4563qX4
Such a huge part of the Gen-X childhood.
I had no idea he was sick.
Yeah, I still picture him as he was in his “prime”, even though I remember seeing him in a run of episodes of The Blacklist several years ago. Can’t quite wrap my head around him being almost as old as my parents and in-laws.
And, Fuck Cancer.
He brought me great amounts of joy in my younger days.
This left me quite down today.
Speaking of “Fuck Cancer,” my sister-in-law has gone public with her diagnosis:
B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL)
She has a fighting chance, but nothing is guaranteed, except for a shitload of pain and discomfort.
Fingers crossed for your sister in law.
In other viewing news: we’re down to 1 episode remaining on Station Eleven.
It’s deviated a lot from the book, but man, it’s been a good ride.
A lot of good articles on this blog if you are a even remotely interested in history:
http://acoup.blog/
I’ll definitely be spending some time on this site. And great name as well.
The youngest is coming on Monday and staying a few days. It’s been a few years since we’ve had people stay over. I decided to clean the guest washroom. There was a lot of dust in that bathtub.
Happy Anniversary to MTV which had its first broadcast on this day back in 1981.
Long live MTV
RIP MTV
I was glued to that station for a few years in the 80s and 90s.
In the beginning it was really exciting. There was a lot of energy. It became a major cultural turning point and actually tried to rise to the challenge organizing youth to do things like “vote” and become interested in the world around them thru things like “Amnesty International” and then even that whole “We are the World” thing.
Then …
Reality TV and faded mediocrity.
This is a great, thoughtful assessment.
I remember when MTV was the zeitgeist. They seemed to be at the cutting edge of everything (except musical sub-genres, ironically). To some degree, it felt they spoke for all of us.
I remember the game shows and comedy shows trickling in, but they felt relevant. Hell, even the first season of “The Real World” felt relevant, but then it got dumber and dumber and more sensationalized. It was truly the beginning of the end of Cable’s wild frontier days. Not just for MTV, but for all of the cable networks, who’d alter their content to become cookie-cutter reality competitions and nonsense.
TV never recovered.
I sorta-recently interviewed Andre from The Real World season 1, and got to ask him if it was fair to say that the downfall of MTV and all of television was his fault.
Luckily, he got the joke.
Heh!
Zeitgeist indeed.
Those were heady days indeed.
It’s funny because they could talk about problems with the world (hell, music videos that broached the topic of impending nuclear war) and yet somehow it all felt “hopeful”.
Been a long time since I felt that way about the world. ♂️
This 1950s era advertising garbage of claims of people passing out or vomiting or whatever in theaters is becoming a trend again. Not a fan of that kind of advertising.
https://geektyrant.com/news/talk-to-me-filmmakers-says-horror-film-had-audiences-members-fainting-and-the-creator-of-the-cursed-hand-quit
Oh! I hope they start using the warnings at the beginning again.
“This film is so shocking, that you might just DIE while watching it. Please leave the theater now, or continue to watch AT YOUR PERIL”
CP: All the Lines — Fleurie
Free book covering the 1965 Worldcon, that is (a very young) Michael Moorcock in the photo:
https://taff.org.uk/ebooks.php?x=1965
Finally finished “Mrs. Davis” on Peacock. A most excellent batshit crazy trip.
Thumbs up from Texas
The final episode of Station Eleven is on point. I do recommend reading the book first, but I think both were excellent, very different takes on the characters and setting.
Just be aware that it’s about the aftermath of a devastating flu outbreak. The book was published about 10 years ago, the series came out in 2021. I don’t know if the series was made with any awareness of COVID (yes, I can just look it up).
Super fantastic news! The US distributors of Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion (1994) added on an extra that puts a comedic dub over the movie called Lake Texarkana Gamera in which all but one character’s voices are replaced with people with southern accents and not matching the actual dialogue of the movie at all. Honestly one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. The fantastic news is that it’s now available on the Internet Archive! Yee haw!
https://archive.org/details/laketexarkanagamera
I had time to watch about the first 10 minutes and have to say it is really well done.
Brilliant.
I need this in my life.
I also need my designated work computer to. . . work.
Now this is fucked up:
https://t.co/bqZGxEERSL
Today the husband and I celebrate 27 year of marital bliss. 27 years!!!
Wow.
Happy Anniversary!
Congratulations!
Happy Anniversary!
Nice! Happy anniversary!
News flash! The new Venture Bros. Movie has a pretty hefty Zardoz reference. That is all.
Fascinating bit of music video history from the early 20th Century:
https://slate.com/culture/2023/08/music-video-history-soundies-mtv-beatles-panoram.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab
I love that the historians are coming back with the snobby “Modern videos aren’t important; Soundies are culturally relevant!” (paraphrased) take.
CP: Pretend – Gerry and the Pacemakers
The dark side of longtermist ideology:
https://t.co/5MR2Ec63oe
Eh, I’ll worry about this in a billion years.
Did you enjoy the breeze as the point whooshed over your head?
So today I learned that Ewan McGregor is married to Mary Elizabeth Winstead from a Twitter thread accusing them of nepotism for her role in Ashoka..
Old news. His uncle is also Wedge. So, what’s their point? It’s just trolls.
Well, if nepotism leads to someone perfectly suited for the role getting cast, then count me in.
I suppose there are folks that are so PO’d that the voice actors for the animated versions of these characters aren’t doing the live action versions and reaching for anything to lash out over.
Time will tell when the show actually comes out, but I’ve been pretty pleased with all the casting choices for the characters that are jumping from cartoon to live action with the Ashoka series.
I’ve liked Mary Elizabeth Winstead in every role she’s played, and as ice creams go, you can do worse than Neapolitan.
I’m gonna be outraged, and you’re not gonna stop me!
Yep, some people will be PO’d no matter what. There are often good reasons why the VAs aren’t cast for live-action. But, on the plus side this time, Lars Mikkelsen who was the VA for Thrawn is also playing the live-action role. So, a lot of thought went into the casting, imo.
The composer Carl Davis has died:
https://t.co/5FqaDOG3sL
Never knew he wrote the music for The World at War documentary series.
CP: Scapegoat (feat. YOSH) — SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]
This is worth sharing again. 😀
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B3aUrNoFE5S/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading
This guy should just direct every movie of every franchise, from here on out.
(He shouldn’t. But this is still great)
Crap joke for the day:
The scientist asks “why?”
The engineer asks “how?”
The English major asks, “Would you like fries with that?”
Ok I’m in:
https://youtu.be/xQpYoUEswRI
Our 16-year-old cat isn’t eating enough.
My 17 year old cat eats too much
I don’t have a cat.
… and that’s today’s Catscan
here on the Deadpan.
Up next – Dogma!
If you are a Nicholas Cage fan when he is in full insane mode you’ll probably like Sympathy for the Devil, I know I did.
The EMH from Voyager returns in S2 of Star Trek Prodigy:
https://intl.startrek.com/videos/star-trek-prodigy-season-2-first-look
This weekend gaming wise has been booting up the PS3 to play Ico. Also running 21st century games written for 20th century hardware on an emulator running on a Nintendo DSi.
The adaptions of Mr Do! And Rally X are pretty good.
I’m still making my way through Resident Evil Village. That dollhouse level was really creepy
I’m on Bluesky now, not sure how often I will check in.
No invites to pass around yet.
For those of us who are old and out of touch…
What is blue sky ?
this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluesky_Social
Basically Mastodon, innit?
My understanding is it is built on the same ActivityPub standard but it is federated only with itself. It seems a bit odd to build on a federation standard but not federate.
Why write a quick email when a novel will do?
I have an in-law that does that … but then sends the novel via Text Message.
(Facepalm)
I was actually referring to an email I sent
I feel old
Star Trek Strange New Worlds the musical was awesome
This was not meant to be a reply. I blame the fact I’m on my third gloats of scotch
It was!
I would love a gloats of Scotch!
I am buried deep in a funk of exhaustion, frustration, and busy-ness. Apologies if I’m less responsive than I’d like, here, there, and everywhere.
We *did* watch GotG3 tonight, which I thought was great.
Possibly unpopular opinion: James Gunn is far better at Marvel than he is at DC. So far. We’ll see what the future holds.
I shouldn’t pass this along, because it’s gloomy as frak, but someone on Fbook posted it, and I found it poignant. Cheers!
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48422/aubade-56d229a6e2f07
Last night I rewatched Inception, a mind fuck of a movie and in my opinion far better than Nolan’s other sci-fi flicks; Interstellar and Tenet.
Something to add to the Inception, the soundtrack really showed off my sub woofer, could feel the vibration in certain places in the movie.
While I seem to be in the minority that highly enjoyed Interstellar, I do think Inception is Nolan’s peak. Tenet was an interesting and original concept (and we continue to need those), but I think it ultimately tried to be too clever for its own good at telling its story.
I might have the minority view that “The Dark Knight” was Nolan’s peak film, but I enjoyed all the other films of his I’ve seen. Have yet to view Tenet or Oppenheimer.
I know we’d talked about Post-paloozaing Tenet, but I still haven’t gotten around to watching it.
Interstellar was good, but I’ve only seen it once. Inception I’ve rewatched multiple times, and it’s always a thrill.
This is where I profess my love for Memento.
Today the youngest comes and will stay with us for the week
We spent Sunday gaming with the kids. Won Mysterium, lost all three tries at the Mind, and tried a new game Windward, about hunting alien whales on a gaseous planet, sort of a steampunk Moby Dick. We didn’t finish, but it was a lot of fun.
Well that was an expensive mistake:
https://youtube.com/shorts/vJ41RvN9DfA?feature=share
It was worth waiting for Cyberpunk 2077 to be massively patched before playing. It’s an excellent game, and I loved the story. Too bad it was a disaster on release. I’m looking forward to the expansion next month.
I’ve been holding off on that one as well. I’ll pick it up eventually, like Diablo 4 and Baulder’s Gate 3.
I’ve yet to start those others. I have a few games to get to before them.
Goodbye to William Friedkin:
William Friedkin: Director of The Exorcist and The French Connection dies aged 87 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66434077
I’ve not seen either film all the way through.
I haven’t seen The Exorcist since I was a young teen, when much of it was probably lost on me. It’s just disturbing stuff.
The French Connection was pretty great. Gene Hackman is probably the all-time best at playing bastards you hate.
Both are incredibly important films.
I’ve also always been curious to see To Live and Die in LA.
Finally got to watch the Strange New Worlds musical episode. Brilliant! It should win all the awards.
Not since Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s “Once More, with Feeling” musical episode have I quite enjoyed something like that – where the characters in a musical know they’re in a musical for actual plot reasons.
One of nice things about Barbie making a billion dollars is Ben Shapiro being totally wrong about how much money the film would make as he complained it was anti-men.
Like
Amazing that so many self-described patriots are cheering the US Women’s soccer team loss. I’m not really aware of what Megan Rapinoe said or did to hurt their feelings. Even if it were legitimately terrible, wouldn’t a “patriot” cheer for their country’s team, regardless?
Megan is a successful lesbian, that’s usually enough to get the right going
On this date in 1969, the Beatles photographed their Abbey Road cover.
CP: V — Marcin Przybylowicz
Well I have now watched The French Connection.
Thumbs up!
So installed the software to hack my 3DS to allow home brew to run.
Things went smoothly which almost never happens.
AI boyfriend:
https://youtu.be/KiPQdVC5RHU
I enjoy looking at the Worldebot analysis and the NYT column for the daily Wordle. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it is interesting.
Today, they claim the puzzle was moderately easy, but based on the bot’s analysis, out of 1,366,137 players 7.1% failed to get the answer. It doesn’t seem quite so easy based on that.
Theory vs practice, I guess.
It took me all 6 guesses today.
Five for me, but I was lucky on my last guess.
All scales need an anchor for interpretation. 7.1% getting something wrong as a scale of easy or hard is meaningless unless we know what is typical of an easy or hard questions. Is it normal that 1% get a question wrong and out of the ordinary for something as high as 7.1% to get it wrong, or is 7.1% the standard and it’s more like when 25% get it wrong that it’s difficult. I think the “out of 1,366,137 players” information does not really contribute to the interpretation of the data.
I get what you are saying, and you aren’t wrong. But I think you may have missed my point.
Goodbye to Sixto Rodriguez:
https://t.co/znMM5gu8Oz
The documentary mentioned is well worth checking out,
Went to the zoo today with the youngest and her partner
Tonight we’re going to watch Blood & Honey
The Guardian reviewer was not impressed:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/mar/09/winnie-the-pooh-blood-and-honey-review-cack-handed-out-of-copyright-horror
Oh, I totally expect it to be terrible. That’s the whole point
CP: Black Night — Deep Purple
Mom emailed. She wants to come out and visit in the spring. I expect a stressful spring
Oh. Hopefully a short trip….? :-/
Did she or didn’t she:
https://t.co/zwO986Tsgj
*Alfred Hitchcock’s silhouette has entered the chat*
I finally watched “Tales of the Jedi”. I thought it was excellent.
A brief history of Rare:
https://t.co/YZNJJs5Pca
Still remember on in the inlay for Jetpac that Jetman was wearing a hydrovac Jetpac and armed with a Quad photon Laser Phaser.
Memory is weird.
Stop comparing the west to Rome:
https://t.co/MedTKe9mBw
Interesting and quick historical read.
Summary – we can only dream of being as functional a society as Rome was during it’s long decline.
Worth a read.
Finally got around to watching The Mitchells vs the Machines because it was used as an example in something I was reading as taking a radically different approach to animation. It was definitely a good movie and the animation was unique. I would have to read more about what was done other than the blending of types of animation for me to consider it a radically different approach. But I plan to go down that route and do some homework.
Speaking of animation… I also watched The Flash recently. Fun movie for sure and I enjoyed it. But… holy insane overuse of CGI Batman! Scenes that had no business whatsoever in being CGI were CGI. I’d almost call this an animated movie.
https://geektyrant.com/news/the-1987-cult-classic-horror-comedy-street-trash-is-getting-a-reboot
Rebooting Street Trash? It was far to “of it’s time” to do that again. BTW, I do know someone that was in the real film for about half a second as one of the cops.
I wonder how they’ll handle the game of keepaway.
And this looks quite interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=60&v=til3a6hM-m0&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Ffeedly.com%2F&source_ve_path=MTM5MTE3LDI4NjY2&feature=emb_logo
May that be the weirdest minute of your entire day.
Not what I’d expected. Depending on the running length, I’d give it a shot.
lol
I’ve never been that drunk:
https://trib.al/W5uRh0k
I finally watched It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World for the first time.
I can’t say my life is more complete, but I enjoyed the over-the-top lunacy of it. It rarely made me LOL, but it is lots of fun. All of those stunts and visual gags are even more impressive, considering that they were all performed with real stuntpeople, real props, and real sets. The cast and the cameos were fun too.
If you can’t handle old movies, then I’d recommend you stay away.
I’ve seen it a few times. It’s fun, and your recommendation is probably correct. A lot of people nowadays can’t handle older style movies.
Also seen it a few times, for an old film it is on the long side.
The only cameo that didn’t click for ages was the three stooges.
So from the wiki entry there is a 202 minute cut out there which I will have to try and find.
210 not 202, 3 and a half hours.
Useless info, the designer of the opening animated credits was Saul Bass who would later direct the scifi film Phase IV.
I am told that one of the amazing things about this film was the hoops that had to be jumped thru to get all those actors to appear in this film together.
A lot of egos clashing and such.
Seems it is amazing that they pulled that off.
It’s been ages since I’ve seen it, but I always thought it was a fun film.
Majima Duck came in today. W00T!!!
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/the-police-king-of-pain/
Cool story.
CP: Record Collector — Lissie
Hmmm:
https://t.co/UrhSMOXjQS
Risky business.
Two giant frustrations today. One with just getting fucking Am I Evil? across the finish line.
One with just getting my fucking passport from the giant bureaucracy.
Talking of old films I’ve started watching Ice Station Zebra. Some of the effects are dodgy looking now but the underwater sub scenes still look good.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen this one.
I’m thinking it was very late 70’s.
I’ve seen bits of it but never the whole thing.
I should do so though.
That would have been a repeat as it was released in 1968.
It’s been ages since I’ve seen it, but I always thought it was a fun film.
this comment was for Mad Mad Mad Mad World.
I stumble across it when I was in grade school. Perhaps 5th grade.
I liked it but as a young child it was profoundly disturbing. Adults acting very, very badly and being physically hurt. I think it was my first inkling that human adults could be awful.
I hadn’t considered that aspect for young viewers. There’s basically no one who’s in the right. Maybe the one wife. . . but (spoiler for a 60-year-old movie) then she schemes with the chief at the end. Everyone is awful.
I was gonna say, it’s surprisingly inoffensive by different standard of different eras – – but there’s a bit of chauvinism, what with ogling the voluptuous police secretary, and the way the older woman character is portrayed.
Well that is Brazil off the holiday list and bananas in general:
https://trib.al/lubwsNH
I wonder what the cure for a bite would be?
Quake 2 has re-released and updated:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/08/quake-ii-gets-a-remaster-for-pc-and-consoles-and-its-exactly-what-it-needs-to-be/
So there was Scrabble World Championship:
https://slate.com/culture/2023/08/scrabble-world-championship-2023-david-eldar-harshan-lamabadusuriya.html
If you would like to mess around with a Linux handheld:
https://hackaday.com/blog/?s=Beepy
If you would like to mess around with a Linux handheld:
https://hackaday.com/blog/?s=Beepy
Bohemian Rhapsody sung in Finnish:
https://youtu.be/TgpGlePv2VU
I wish I could read Japanese
https://viewer-trial.bookwalker.jp/03/15/viewer.html?cid=b1629846-3359-4797-9cf0-4e988eb77192&cty=1&adpcnt=7qM_Nkp
Wait, Good Omens S2 is out!?
Yes indeed.
Killer semi-new Mitch Murder 8-bit song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eW9di35h8c
Cue Twilight Zone music:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Angola_Boeing_727_disappearance
I have only just discovered the music of Liza Anne.
I am a fan.
I’ve been enjoying the Blade Runner comic series. In particular, “Blade Runner: Origins” is very good. I highly recommend these to anyone not named Van. 😀
JW: Paprika
Christopher Nolan has some explaining to do.
But seriously if you’ve seen Inception before this you will notice some striking similarities.
Satoshi Kon has influenced a lot of directors.
We built an elaborate Hot Wheels track today using construction paper and about 10 different random things, including a TV tray, a paper plate, an empty Dr. Pepper case, and a whole bunch of tape. The cars still wipe out at the bottom, but it’s fun.
As inevitable as death and taxes:
https://sfstandard.com/2023/08/11/san-francisco-robotaxi-cruise-debauchery/
I was trying again to find that crazy dance video from the early 2010s, with the Euro mustache guy as the main focus. . . he does a weird frog-like dance. . . He goes to his girlfriend’s apartment and they both do the dance.
Man, talk about something that was a flash in the pan.
As I get older I appreciate short games that much more.
Just finished Tacoma another walking simulator Doesn’t take long to finish but an interesting story it tells.
All achievements unlocked on second playthrough.
Fullbrights next game has Kerri Russell voicing the mother.
The kids left on the weekend. I love our youngest dearly but she’s a smoker. While they didn’t smoke in the house I could still smell it.
Today I’ll strip the guest bed and put on clean sheets
We all want to know how everyone enjoyed Blood and Honey
It was terrible. It looked like something made by a bunch of college students for a project or something. Still, worth watching when it comes to Netflix and doesn’t cost anything to stream.
CP: Why Don’t You Eat Where You Slept Last Night — Zu Zu Bollin
JW: Elemental
Enjoyed that romcom from Pixar,
Did you see the “Up” short, or just the Elemental movie?
Just the movie.
CW: The Night Manager E1
I missed this first time around and the BBC has this week dumped a lot of good tv on iPlayer service.
So the 1980 Oppenheimer series is on there now and I, Claudius dropping this week as well.
Morning Pan
Lunch with my Boo today
I would say I’m in but I was going to watch it anyway, looking good though:
https://youtu.be/8T0ztBfEZe0
I’m kind of shocked that the entire original cast has come back to do the voice acting for the animated version.
I sent an email. Exciting, I know.
Nothing shatters your illusions of upgrading your laptops battery and memory than a youtube video showing how complicated of a procedure it would be..eeek!
Which is a pity cos even though the cpu is an 8th generation i5 it’s fast enough what i need a laptop for.
Still recovering from the stress of replacing my laptop battery.
I saw Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse last night.
Animation = A+
Music = A+
Story = A-
To Be Continued = C
I really loved this movie. However I still feel the need to make it clear that I’m thoroughly sick and tires of the multi-verse concept. Enough already. And the pacing was so insanely fast (especially for the little text boxes that would pop up and for fight scenes) that I’m sure I missed almost as much as I saw.
I seem to be in the minority that didn’t love this movie – – mainly for the complaints you stated. Call me cranky and old, but every frame was just too busy.
It was good, sure, but I don’t share the “best movie evar” reactions.
Definitely not the best movie ever. But for an animation geek like me it was doing some really cool stuff, especially in the backgrounds of Spider-Gwen sequences.
CP: Pure Morning — Placebo
A friend in need’s a friend indeed.
JW: Interstellar
I haven’t seen this film since I saw it at the cinema back in 2014.
But bloody hell I appreciated it more after a rewatch than did after seeing it at the cinema.
The soundtrack truly fits the epic nature of the film. Still think the plot of Inception is better though.
https://loudwire.com/rock-music-myths-true-legends-stories/
Mainly for the Debbie Harry story. Still may not be true, but kinda freaky.
https://hard-drive.net/hd/list/every-christopher-nolan-movie-ranked-by-when-my-mom-tapped-out-watching-them/
Burn!
CW: I, Claudius
The BBC is repeating the series in blocks of episodes cobbled together over four weeks.
It’s all studio based, so it’s impressive how they worked around that and saving money as well.
Scratch that I had forgotten the first episode was movie length.
On the BBC Oppenheimer tv series:
https://t.co/CHyLm9mHts
CW: Chibi Unity dancing to hometown by cleopatrick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZdXlU_VChw
This is the crazy song/video I was trying to remember:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDFBTdToRmw
Dammit Jack! I had successfully forgotten that song.
skibidi bop bop bop gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
lol
Crap. Now I’ve watched his new song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieumolVsiWI
John and I now hate you all
I know of a dance that will win you back over. . .
That is definitely interesting and entertaining.
Cool:
https://youtube.com/shorts/IQTF6OrBEZo?feature=share
Only if it is not animation.
What AI thinks people of various states look like:
https://www.dailybee.com/en/generated-people-american?utm_source=twitter2&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=create&ly=native_one&mbid=poul7ww2iw
I asked the husband if he wanted to see the tentative schedule for the meetup
His reply: I really don’t
Being married to an introvert is fun
I got my long-form BC last night. Today I’ll call the Passport people and see what the deal is.
I have yet to read this: https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/17/23836062/amazon-new-five-star-ratings-system-hard-to-read
I saw another author say that in Bezarros (sic) World, only 5-star reviews matter. Anything less is useless.
There’s a Disney CTG on the way, for those who do those things. My friend who runs a little shop in NJ said he hasn’t received this many calls since Pokemon hit.
Center for Technology in Government?
Community Theater for Greensboro?
Cumupins To Groundhogs?
Cucumber Tasty Gardens?
I bungled the acronym.
Collectible Trading Card Game.
Although I’d really like to see Disney release Carnivorous Tiny Gerbils.
Who wouldn’t want to see Disney release Carnivorous Tiny Gerbils?
CP: Happy Birthday In The Sky — Placebo
Would you buy a brand new laptop with two year old specs?
If the price was right.
Well that sucks balls:
https://t.co/55HFup5HgU
Yeah, I just saw the same news on Yahoo. Very disappointing!
This timeline is such a stub.
Watched “Nope” last night for the first time.
One of the best films I have seen in a while.
I would elaborate on what I liked but don’t want to spoiler for any that haven’t seen it.
I will say that it is masterfully made.
Don’t know if the creative decisions were driven by Peele or if he simply surrounded himself with talent and let them do their thing but at the very least he is a brilliant producer.
You might turn me around on this one. . . I was giving it a pass, due to lackluster reviews. I didn’t love his scissors movie, but I thought Get Out was excellent.
It doesn’t try to answer any “deep” questions or make any statements and seems to be purposefully quirky with a lot of characters being characters.
It’s just entertainment and I think it does that well.
Entertainment!? *dons monocle* I shan’t be wasting my time with it then.
I liked it. No big character development, but a novel take on a horror movie.
It was a good movie for me, but nothing stellar about it. Was definitely worth the watch.
I just thought it was ok and have no desire to rewatch it.
So looks like Oppenheimer is overtaking Interstellar in amount taken at the box office. Of course taking inflation into account then Interstellar might still be ahead.
Siberia’s candy pink lake:
https://www.new-east-archive.org/features/show/11318/travel-russia-siberia-photography-candy-pink-salt-lake-alisa-aiv
Fascinating read.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90933474/taylor-swifts-eras-tour-is-a-reminder-that-social-media-is-not-real-life
“Perhaps it’s time to sideline social media and the internet when evaluating the nature of our collective reality. Reality exists outside of our devices, whereas social media algorithms push whatever keeps us tethered to the screen. There is little evidence to support the idea that online discourse represents collective experiences.”
“In other words, most of the discussions happening on websites like Reddit and Twitter come from a vocal minority of users—whose posts are then curated and boosted by algorithms.”
Russia’s space probe jinx continues:
https://t.co/n7aKszuQGx
You know even after all this time the intro to A Bridge too Far still gives me goosebumps:
https://youtu.be/F0DMFvl2flA
The plan, like so many plans
in so many wars before it,
was meant to end
the fighting by Christmas
and bring the boys back home.
Crap joke for the day:
A man walked into a bar, sat down, and ordered a beer.
As he sipped the beer he heard a soothing voice say, “Nice tie.”
Looking around he noticed that the bar was empty except for himself and the bartender at the end of the bar.
A few sips later the voice said, “Beautiful shirt.”
At this, the man called the bartender over and said, “Hey, I must be losing my mind. I keep hearing these voices saying nice things, and there’s not a soul in here but us.”
“It’s the peanuts,” answered the bartender.
The man asked, “What do you mean?”
“You heard me. It’s the peanuts. They’re complimentary!”
https://mailchi.mp/07a0742d3d67/rc-23-selective-outrage?e=%5BUNIQID%5D&
From my longtime friend, Ruth.
The many versions of Bruce Lee:
https://youtu.be/PXGY34d-QCg
I only know a few of these Tolkien-inspired songs.
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/11-songs-inspired-by-j-r-r-tolkien-s-the-lord-of-the-rings?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us
Awww:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/08/its-a-no-longer-me-charles-martinet-steps-down-as-marios-voice/
I may have missed it in the article. I assume he was only the English voice.
CP: Straight Outta Compton — N.W.A.
Cray motherfucker named ditto,
From the gang called Deadpan with attitude.
I’ve been reading the “Star Wars Archives”. It’s a fascinating read if you are at all interested in how the first 6 movies were made.
JW: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
Finally, FINALLY I sat down and watched this film all the way through.
Glad I did.
This was the original not the remake which I had seen at the cinema.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhqyZeUlE8U
San Siro column illusion:
https://youtube.com/shorts/v8SqBx2EjzQ?feature=share
How is it that the same Phil Collins gave us “Take Me Home” and “Sussussudio?”
Sussussspicious?
How is it that the same Phil Collins gave us “Dance on a Volcano” and “Another Day in Paradise”?
There are a dozen robins in our yard. They are flying around. One hit our window. It’s kind of freaky.
Worst Hitchcock remake. Ever.
Kevin Pollack tells a pretty great Usual Suspects story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcCCUcwRy5c
One more short fun clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DUNUGzGRfo
Watching a S2 episode of Columbo, Julie Newmar is playing the GF of the murder victim and is in a leotard.
/swoon
+25
I’ll be in my batcave.
One of my stock sayings in “you learn something new every day… whether you want to or not”
I put in a change of address for my mother who is relocating from Nebraska to be closer to me in Orlando. I went to the “Official USPS” website and followed their official link to put in the change of address. In doing so, I was bombarded more than I have been in a long time with requests to upsell and advertisements for other services along the way as well as a $1.10 credit card charge to verify. Then I got told we had to go to the physical post office and show someone an ID. After the fact I thought, wait, USPS is a branch of the government, how are they able to try and sell me on other services? Did I get taken in by a scam service? I went back and found that I was on USPS.com rather than USPS.gov and wondered how they could let someone do that. As it turns out, USPS.com is the actual post office. They do have a registered trademark on the name (which the government isn’t allowed to do) and they can sell you anything they want. Why? Had to go to Bard (like ChatGPT but from Microsoft) for that answer:
The United States Postal Service (USPS) is a government agency, but it is also a self-funded enterprise. This means that the USPS does not receive any taxpayer money, and it must generate its own revenue from postage and other services. As a self-funded enterprise, the USPS is allowed to use a .com domain name for its website. .com domain names are typically used by commercial businesses, but they can also be used by government agencies that generate their own revenue.
Now I’m ready to go against Cliff Claven on Jeopardy!
I still don’t know how Louis DeJoy remains postmaster general.
He was expressly sent there in 2020 to break the place so that Republicans could hand all postal business to their buddies.
I get that he was appointed by a board of governors, but I just don’t understand why he hasn’t been re-stationed to the post office at one of our arctic bases.
It’s turning into a really off day today. I blame yesterday’s robins
Sorry to hear it 🙁
As mentioned on the Facebook group, had to go to hospital today for an appointment and discovered that the free Wi-Fi had blocked this website.
So that happened.
I’m digging the new Metal Church Album. I can easily imagine their new vocalist singing “The Dark”.
(Your Jack pretends to be cool moment) I learned from Marc Lopes himself that he was gonna be the new singer, a few days before he was officially announced.
He’s an amazing vocalist, but the new album is just OK to me. I would love to hear him do the older material.
Cool to meet the dude in person.
The making of Planet of the Apes, you know the good one:
https://cinemascholars.com/the-making-of-planet-of-the-apes-1968/?utm_content=cmp-true
It’s dry stuff, but important. Written by a guy I knew from my hometown.
https://talibmorgan.medium.com/jobs-in-a-generative-ai-future-an-examination-of-the-impact-of-generative-ai-on-the-top-white-46bf918f7442
More on the AI front, automating disinformation:
https://t.co/JsmMe7du5N
Screenplays for Glass Onion and pilot episode of Poker Face:
https://www.rian-johnson.com/screenplays
I agree that the first episodes of Ashoka were slow pace but the characters were likeable.
Chandrayaan-3: India makes historic landing near Moon’s south pole https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-66594520
Unverified anecdote: The mission’s budget was less than the budget for Christopher Nolan’s film, “Interstellar.”
Now I have a bad Reeses Puffs hip-hop jingle stuck in my head.
Ugh
Always interesting to see how many of Putin’s challengers die in accidents.
https://www.ft.com/content/812c9da3-80f2-4fe1-8fad-0b4441d1977a
While I haven’t listened to any of it yet, there’s actually a podcast about this that is apparently pretty good.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-sad-oligarch-116754842/
I’ll check it out. Thanks!
Use you one free article to read this lengthy artillery about the OceanGate disaster:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/08/titan-submersible-implosion-warnings
Article!
Kitty seizures are scary and awful for our old lady cat.
Yeah, I sympathize. We are going through that with our cat, and went through it with our previous dog.
*hugz*
*hugz back atcha*
Indeed.
More *hugz*
I chickened out buying parts to upgrade the old laptop and ordered a new laptop instead.
I’ll hand my geek card in later.
Lay offs at BioWare:
https://go.ea.com/SoBW2023
If you are impatiently waiting for S2 of Invincible on Prime, there is an hour long prequel that tells the origins of Atom Eve that is worth checking out.
A look at how historical dramas were done well on a low budget:
https://youtu.be/roI56_c_E6o?si=1_TCYiQgtXA3KfOR
Analog computing in the 21st century:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/08/ibm-team-builds-low-power-analog-ai-processor/
Looking good:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/08/dark-forces-remaster-is-yet-another-all-timer-fps-coming-back-around/
Ep 1 of Ahsoka consumed. It feels like they’re trying again, as opposed to the phone-it-in efforts of recent D+ Star Wars shows. We’ll watch ep2 tonight.
Andor was not phoning it in for goodness sake.
Agreed. Neither were the first 2 Mandolorian seasons.
If anyone watches Ahsoka that hasn’t seen the animated series, I’m quite interested in opinions. As is seems to be a live action continuation of Rebels (which I haven’t watched) I’m concerned I’ll just be lost trying to follow things.
As Rebels characters were introduced in Ep 1, I could almost feel the producers expectation that we’d get giddy seeing them onscreen.
I guess that would be the case for the show’s superfans?
Well I’m clueless but after episode I feel like Tim Curry character from Red Alert 3:
You like the Beautiful Girls?
Me too…
OK, I’m intrigued. I’ve only just begun to skim.
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-lists/worst-tv-network-decisions-1234796350/jeopardy-allows-mikel-richards-to-anoint-himself-host-1234796848/
No mention of the terrible ending for the BSG reboot.
Pah!
It’s one small paw for dog….
https://buff.ly/3dARyHh
I saw a commercial today that has me asking, are mimes really still a thing?
I did not see it but I heard that all the candidates in last night’s Republican debate were apparently running against internet memes instead of actual issues.
Ummm. I said mimes, not memes
Ugh. Dune part 2 delayed until March.
https://www.avclub.com/dune-part-2-delayed-2024-warner-bros-panic-1850772373
That’s certainly a disappointment. That was probably going to be my only visit to a theater this year.
All strikers are bastards for making this happen was a reaction from a lot of people on Twitter.
Insert eye rolling here ——>
Also they didn’t delay Aquaman 2 which has had far less marketing money spent and is still shooting.
Got caught up on the 2nd episode of Ashoka tonight, so I can finally comment.
I’m pretty deeply invested in the Clone Wars series as well as Rebels, so seeing these characters in live action has been enjoyable. I think they nailed the casting with Ashoka, Sabine, and Hera.
I think the story has progressed well in these 1st couple of episodes, though I’m a bit weary with another secret map to a secret place in the universe that a plot important character happens to be located at. Hopefully this show will do better with the concept than the last couple of Star Wars movies did.
Going to be curious to learn what Thrawn and Ezra have been busy with for the last decade.
My wife isn’t connected with the previous shows and doesn’t read Star Wars novels, so she’s pretty much lost.
That whole sequence in the temple had a Guardians of the Galaxy vibe. Was half expecting the robot to ask who Ahsoka was and being puzzled when she says her name.
The map was contained in a sphere as well.
FYI: (I don’t think that) Ed and Van’s comments are spoilers. That’s stuff that’s established pretty much right away.
I agree 100% about recycling the “secret map the big character” plot device. Meh.
There’s one other spoilery thing that reeeallly bugged me about how ep 1 ended and ep 2 began. It’s a repeat of a lame trick from Kenobi.
But still, the action, story, and characters are all working.
Group email sent.
I’m not going to make it to Calgary this year.
All occasions have informed against me, once again.
Are the airline giving you credit to use at another time as they won’t refund?
The airline will give us credit for another flight. Tiffany seems to think that they’ll require us to use it for a Calgary trip.
Meaning I’ll have the Mangan’s to myself in spring. Jealous?
Umm..No.
Back to Ashoka. John and I only saw a few episodes of the animated series and we were able to get into it ok. That being said, I really have issues with Sabine as a character. Maybe she would be more likeable to me had I seen more of the animated series.
She does come over as petulant child in the first couple of episodes.
Funny. That was one of the reasons I didn’t get into the animated series. I felt like those earliest episodes with Ashoka, she seemed like a petulant child and I just didn’t like her. Always assumed that she had gone through some large character growth sometime early on if everyone liked her so much.
I am on record saying that I hated everything about Rebels season 1. The characters, the stories, the way 10 stormtroopers at point blank range would miss the main characters (taking the cliche to idiotic levels).
But – – somehow season 2 and beyond corrected a lot of those things. There were still dumb things here and there, but overall, the remaining seasons had some great moments.
You know you were on the edge of your seat for the new Orchestral Manouvres in the Dark!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFpIz0RQU9c
This song is actually really good.
JW: Past Lives
An immigrant agrees to meet-up with a friend she left behind in South Korea. Not much happens which feels like damning with praise but it’s not. If you want a change from action flicks it’s well worth a watch.
North Korean science fiction:
https://arstechnica.com/culture/2023/08/the-strange-secretive-world-of-north-korean-science-fiction/
That was actually quite interesting
I asked the other half to drop 2 streaming services, because we’re broke. Hulu is the obvious choice, although it does mean we may not make it to the finale of Only Murders in the Building S3. And no more What We Do in the Shadows for awhile.
I know we have at least one pole vault expert among us, but I’m curious if others have heard the story. I knew nothing about it, but I think the context is clear in this recent statement from US vaulter, Katie Nageotte.
“To say that I’ve seen mixed reviews about our decision to share the win would be an understatement. While part of me doesn’t want to entertain the negative comments, I would like to help enlighten those that are calling us “cowards”, “shameful”, “pathetic” etc. I know you can’t make everyone happy in this world, but in an effort to help people understand the sport that I love so much, I would like to explain my mentality in that moment. The pole vault is not an endurance event. We have a short window of jumps. Once the fatigue sets in, it not only becomes more difficult, but dangerous. The sport has seen everything from athletes just landing funny with minor tweaks, to horrific accidents. We had jumped an entire competition, vaulting for almost 4 hours in 85 degree heat. The competition ended, and we were exhausted. A World Championship is incredibly emotionally draining-even more so than a regular competition. My step (the point where I jump off the ground into the takeoff) to vault safely has to be in almost the exact same spot every time, give or take a few inches. My last few jumps, that takeoff step was moving further and further out, giving us real data showing my fatigue even with adrenaline. To walk away healthy and with a gold medal, while celebrating with my friend that had jumped just as well, was a no-brainer. Part of the reason we’ve reached the highest level is by listening to our bodies, and knowing our limitations. We decided that in this particular moment, sharing glory was just as good as earning it outright. I understand that people want to see a clear winner. It is the exciting part of sport. But in this instance, it was without a doubt the right decision, and one that I will never regret. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need a “win at all cost” mindset to have a champion’s mentality.”
I Guess I’m surprised that anyone outside of Track and Field would care.
Anyone inside already gets it.
I think she does a pretty good job of explaining what they are up against.
It’s also worth noting that this is one of those few sports where your not actively trying to do anything against your competitor. You never make physical contact with them. You aren’t trying to put a ball somewhere they can’t get at it. You are fighting the sport not any other person.
My favorite analogy is that
It’s more like you are a bunch of different knights trying to slay a dragon. Sure, you want the glory of the final blow… but at the end of the day you all share a faced nemesis and generally unspoken danger. Especially at this level, they all know each other and travel to the same meets week after week and often train together. They are more brothers in arms than “mortal enemies”.
It is similar in the High Jump. At the last Olympics the final two competitors in the men’s event cleared the same amazing height but then missed the next. They lowered the bar and both cleared it. Then the bar was raised and they both missed. You could see they were spent. Weren’t getting up to speed and such. Rather than keep lowering the bar and jumping til someone couldn’t they both withdrew for the tie.
The sport applauded.
The incensed internet was incensed.
**shrug**
Athletes doing the classy, sportsmanlike, honorable thing, rather than risking injury to themselves and their competitor.
But hold on, DeezNutzzz6969 in front of his computer with a bag of Cheetohs has now stated on Reddit that they’re cowards.
How can I know which one is right?
Crap joke for the day:
Sitting on the highway waiting to catch speeders, a state police officer saw a car puttering along at 22 M.P.H. He thinks to himself, that car is just as dangerous as a speeder. So, he turns his lights on and pulls the car over. Approaching the car, he notices there are 5 old ladies, two at the front and 3 at the back, wide eyed and looking like ghosts.
The driver obviously confused said,” Officer, I don’t understand, I wasn’t doing over the speed limit! What seems to be the problem?” “Ma’am,” the officer said, “you should know that driving slower than the speed limit can also be dangerous”. “Slower than the speed limit? NO SIR! I was doing exactly 22 miles an hour”, the old woman said proudly.
The officer containing a chuckle explains that 22 was the route number, not the speed limit. A bit embarrassed, the woman grinned, thanking the officer for pointing out her error. “Before I go Ma’am, I have to ask, is everyone OK?
These women seem badly shaken and haven’t uttered a word all this time” “Oh! they will be alright in a minute, Officer, we just got off Route 142.
Hey Rhett, did you get my email?
If you mean the group one, yes I did. Teresa and I will go with the flow. 🙂
Nope, I sent you a personal one. I’ll resend it through my gmail account
You can tell you are getting old when you are surprised that your new laptop doesn’t have a separate power port but is charged through a USB C socket.
Now the laborious process of downloading and installing updates begins.
Mortality calling tonight. If I lived about another 23 years I would be 80.
Fuck!
Goodbye to Arleen Sorkin:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arleen_Sorkin
The husband and I actually quite enjoyed The Flash. Although, I do think I preferred the series Flash actor. Still, the movie was fun
So Oppenheimer has now taken more money than Inception. Only Nolan’s Batman films have taken more money.
It gladdens my heart that reasonably intelligent movies are this popular. After driving half way across Florida yesterday looking at billboards that dampen my view of the ‘Murican public, this picks me up a bit.
I suspect they will find bugger all:
https://www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2023/08/26/biggest-hunt-for-the-loch-ness-monster-in-50-years-gets-under-way/?fbclid=IwAR0P_y2FRi2QG21XXeHor2lkbPQwFYXBzCJ5W2dcLJNBSKFu7b0jqlqCM2A_aem_AW7Nxpyzlls_c29FlroMrdI6u_Pzi_b7mo71kMcG21HZxTOtBWDgi4hrZbLg-QSHgQ8
Ope. There goes my view of the public again.
I think we should all stay home from school on Monday and watch daytime TV, in honor of Bob Barker. RIP.
When you dance with the devil…
https://t.co/c73BkmQ4pn
“a deliberate, weaponized incompetence,”
So last night I rewatched Tenet. I can’t remember if I had problems understanding the dialogue when I saw it at the cinema but I certainly didn’t last night when I watched it on my tv.
I enjoyed it more on the rewatch.
The sound quality on this was horrible when I first watched it. I had to restart it half way through and turn on the subtitles.
My soundbar has a voice setting that is supposed to help with dialogue and I leave it on. So that might explain it.
CP: Apache – Incredible Bongo Band
Finally watched the latest “ dungeons and dragons” movie.
It was fun. The call backs to things from playing the actual game were fun.
I picked up Baldur’s Gate 3 yesterday. So far, I’ve had three die rolls. A 6, a 1, and a 2. I think I need a new set of dice.
Maybe I was lucky after all:
https://bbc.in/3KUAvh2
So Disney filmed an entire series called Nautilus based on Captain Nemo and then stuck it in the vaults and refuses to air it..WTF:
Well not airing it on Disney+ but shopping it around to other networks.
Fun with tech support.
My iPhone SE purchased the beginning of this year has had charging issues for months now.
Basically, the battery percentage indicator always shows lots of power even as it goes dead and to charge it before then, I have to force restart the phone. I have to do this every time.
So, chatting with tech support –
Them: May I know are you using the charger which has came with the iPhone ?
Me: Trick question?
It did not come with a charger. It DID come with a cable and I am using that.
Them: Yes, that is correct!
So this article has been generating some anger.
https://www.stereogum.com/2233806/alice-cooper-new-album-keanu-reeves-trans-issues/interviews/weve-got-a-file-on-you/
Zero defense of his words or views. I just hope I’m not reciting canned, previously-debunked, harmful talking points if I make it to his age, whether I’m being interviewed or blathering away at the Thanksgiving table.
I was also gonna say, I still like his music, and I can see the difference between Alice Cooper and Ted Nugent, Kid Rock, et al. I hope the Cancel Brigade can see degrees of cluelessness.
I think it is cool that he used to be friends with Groucho Marx, but yes, his remarks are pretty tone-deaf.
Crap joke for the day:
A man asked his wife what she’d like for her birthday.
“I’d like to be eight again…” she replied.
On the morning of her birthday, he arose early, made her a nice big bowl of Coco Pops, and then took her off to the local theme park.
What a day! He put her on every ride in the park: the Death Slide, the Wall of Fear, the Screaming Monster Roller Coaster, every thing there was.
Five hours later she staggered out of the theme park. Her head was reeling and her stomach felt upside down.
Right away, they journeyed to a McDonald’s where her loving husband ordered her a Happy Meal with extra fries and a refreshing chocolate shake.
Then it was off to the movies with popcorn, all the Coke she could drink, and her favorite M&M’s. What a fabulous adventure!
Finally she wobbled home with her husband and collapsed into bed exhausted.
He leaned over his precious wife with a big smile and lovingly asked, “Well, Dear, what was it like being eight again?”
Her eyes slowly opened and her expression suddenly changed. “I meant my dress size!!!!!!!”
I’m on the husbands side on this one. I think what he did was very sweet
So been playing Library of Babel on mobile (it’s also on steam). Nice 2D stealth platform game with an interesting plot.
As karma for my jokes about staying home from school to honor Bob Barker, the little one got sick at school today.
She’s been fine, I think the swings just made her barf.
And adding the the daily F.U. – – we may be eating that airfare after all. Stay tuned.
That sucks Jack.
I’ve just gone to the “genius bar“.
The guy there told me my phone was broke. They’ve ordered me a new one.
This has nothing to do with the above comment.
I blame it on my broke phone.
It’s why I continue to get iPhones, easier to get stuff fixed or replaced.
It kinda falls under “Daily F.U.” – – although a new phone is a good outcome.
Crap joke for the day:
I heard about this pastor. He bought a new horse. He trained it to respond to “Praise the Lord” meaning giddy-up and “hallelujah” meaning woah. Every time he said praise the lord, the horse would take off running. When he said hallelujah, it would quickly stop.One day he was out riding and the horse got spooked and took off straight toward a cliff going full blast. In the panic, he couldn’t remember what he taught his horse. He said blessed God, glory, Amen, nothing worked!At the last second, he shouted “HALLELUJAH”, the horse came to a screeching halt inches before the edge of the cliff. He breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Praise the Lord!”.
When Cj and her ex-husband Dan did Love Long and Propser, they tried to launch “AOH” as “Acknowledgment Of Humor,” in response to jokes that didn’t quite merit a “LOL” response.
So some of the MAGA crowd are not vaccinating their dogs for rabies due to Covid vaccine conspiracy theories.
Can you stop the World? I want to get off.
May karma come for them all.
CP: I Lived To Tell About It — Playing For Change, War & Pierce
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/hollywood-self-sabotage-writer-strike?source=Paid_Soc_FBIG_CM_0_DPA_GTM_0_NYR_US_Prospecting_C&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=Paid_Soc_FBIG_CM&utm_brand=tny&utm_campaign=paid-DPA_GTM&utm_paidredirect=Paid_Soc_FBIG_CMDPA_C&fbclid=IwAR0J25aXNkNdYEpJ34R3S9W8sx-ZRBJe7_TnnT1JoPX5ZKuwwidJv1XJCLQ_aem_Ad0BVsY66B1uJ1DlE7jG7Jsz8LX8lZ6Ahn4ByKxPpadHsxnjL7u2asN1SEfDaC9jyQCj4flBgQ8X8Hu8e-dBNhjE
I think that link will work? Fascinating piece about the state of Hollywood.
The link does work.
“people spend more time (and money) on video games than they do on movies, and they spend more time watching YouTube than any other TV network.”
What I find funny about this quote is that is where my thinking went given the coming shortage of film and television. The longer the movie business is without product the more apt people will seek alternatives, the less relevance scripted entertainment will have.
I question what that sentence really means.
I can say that over the whole of my life I have spent much more time and money on music (be it listening to the radio or buying music and concert tickets) than the movies and yet that never diminished my desire to see a good film.
I simply have always had more opportunity for music than for carving out that two+ hours to go to the theater.
Throughout the day everyone has 2 minutes here, 10 minutes there of time to kill and handheld video games /YouTube on your phone is just an easy “go to” time killer.
CP: She Blinded me with Science- Thomas Dolby
She’s tidied up and I can’t find anything!
I hope our Southeastern and Florida folks are riding this thing out in safety.
Central Florida got off light. We didn’t see much of an impact here. West of here and north of here are a different matter.
Glad you escaped unscathed!
Fantastic analysis of Zardoz:
https://tonypeak.substack.com/p/zardoz-sfs-maligned-masterpiece?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium
Spent a pleasant half hour watching this short documentary about the make of Edge of Darkness tv series:
https://t.co/UPc7HpEF9S
Deleted scene from the first Terminator film:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zYkBSFKCDog
It was rather stormy last night
I enjoyed Blue Beetle.
Move along now, nothing else to see here.
Very tempting. I’m not really into “collectible” stuff like this anymore, but I’m glad to see we’re living in a age where something like this is possible.
https://www.starwars.com/news/haslab-ghost-interview
CP: Good Pain — Live
That’s a good one. Thanks for reminding me.
I see Amy’s flight is running a little early. I guess I’m headed to the airport in about 20 minutes.
I won’t keep restating my disappointment that I’m not there with the MMMmmmeetup this weekend. But I am really disappointed.
I do want to see all of the fun updates. Everyone have an amazing time in the cool Albertan climates.
Cool? It’s suppose to be 28C on Saturday. That’s blistering hot by our standards
Might need to pack my overcoat.
Well Jack, welcome to my world. 🙁
I hope amy likes to walk. International arrivals has Ben moved to the new wing of the airport. It’s a bit of a hike from sort term parking to there
My food there’s a lot of good looking guys coming out of security
No Amy yet, though
Apparently Amy is waiting for her luggage. Not sure how long until I see her yet 🙁
The Amy has landed
There are two Best Westerns in Airdrie. Ed and Amy decided to shun each other and accidentally each booked at different ones. LOL
How can there be two Best Westerns? Shouldn’t there be one Best Western and then a Second Best Western?
Hahahahaha!! Yeah, that’s on me. I didn’t realize there was more than one, either.
I made it here safely. Ryah and I, along with Jay Langejans from the Dog Days of Podcasting crew, had a delightful dinner out. We’re looking forward to an adventurous weekend, and we’ll be sure to share pictures!
Watched the first episode of One Piece on Netflix.
Was ok, found the rubber kid to be annoying and I don’t understand the buzz it’s been getting.
Ah well, back to shouting at the clouds.
I’m looking forward to the call on Saturday.
I’m hoping to have a big announcement to make on the call, but I may not be ready.
What a tease!
For some reason buying new spectacles was a nerve wracking experience this morning.
So new laptop and new glasses as I couldn’t go to the meet-up this year.
So if you are an US actor please stop doing this:
https://t.co/NCvqp7EZZi
How the music and SFX were done on Forbidden Planet:
https://youtu.be/YSFoILcyqAU?si=Ba-AftpE1O5RTo1o
Our flight has been delayed 4 hours. Seeing if we can find an earlier flight.
CP: Run — Steven Richard Davis & Kings of Collapse
To add to the nonstop fun train, our 16 year old cat is now missing.
**UPDATE** Found. I’m not given to panic, but she’d been gone and not responding to anything for more hours than ever before.
Good news!
The covering up of the work of VFX teams:
https://t.co/UTpUpJjb3q
We have all eaten. Rhett should show up any time now
We attempted The Flash tonight. If not for the promise of Michael Keaton, we would have bowed out a lot sooner. Good lord, is this a terrible movie.
We may finish it; I’m curious to see Supergirl in action (thank you trailer spoilers) and to see more more of Keaton Batman, but wow, this is almost unwatchable.
The Supergirl scenes are worth a watch, I hope the actress gets another shot at playing her in the future.
Goodbye to Jimmy Buffet:
https://t.co/vJ31jKecqW
Well that’s just deeply sad.
He pretty much created his own genre and was mostly associated with joy.
I think there’s a woman to blame.
Must plug in my iPad so it’s charges for video conference this afternoon 😉
Just installed Zoom on the laptop.
Eating breakfast in Canada! We’ll see the rest of the gang at Heritage Park.
Breakfast in Canada.
Supertramps lesser know, follow up album.
I have learned we are all terrible at pool
Yo Van. We are live
Well it was nice seeing you all on the zoom chat.
I agree
The Luber lens:
https://youtu.be/jShOyCq_zqw?si=c1Xx59uRx78Q-91T
So it was great seeing everyone on the conference call yesterday!
Saw the Takakkaw falls. Now relaxing before dinner
Those pictures/videos are amazing! Looks incredible there.
We did have a really nice night of gaming here last night. The elder daughter came home with a crew of college friends and we had two tables going. Betrayal at House on the Hill, Werewolf, Ticket to Ride, Cat Crimes, plus LeeLoo’s egg carton game called Rolls.
The best of times!
So today I’ve mostly been playing Bruce Lee, a game for the Sega Master System that was based on the Atari 800 version.
Later learnt the programmer based it on the ZX spectrum version.
On unrequited love:
https://t.co/lEurinyZZ6
Saw amy off at the airport. Now heading home to set up for gaming with the Hastings
John won Lords of Waterdeep, Teresa won Martian Dice. It was a fun evening
It was! Thank you for being gracious hosts!
I made it over to the local CokoCon today with the little one. Very quiet. . . but it is Monday. She had a great time drawing a cat, dragon, unicorn, and octopus with Gilead the artist, plus building forts and coloring. It was also good to run into Ben and Keith, aka Two Gay Geeks.
I have enjoyed the big-time Cons, but most of my best Con memories are at these little ones. I hope they can continue.
I’m not sure I’ll ever go to a con again because I felt very alienated by the two cons I did go too.
Were they local Cons or bigger ComicCon style things?
Medium size, book centred, Nine Worlds (now defunct) and Fantasycon.
RIP Gary Wright
https://loudwire.com/dream-weaver-vocalist-gary-wright-died-80/
“Dream Weaver” is the song that played every time Wayne swooned for Tia Carrere.
My latest MHOF article, this time tackling “Back in Black.”
https://metalhalloffame.org/back-in-black/
The fourth-highest-selling album of all time!
Nicely done
CP: On the Nature of Daylight — Max Richter
I just saw Dave Matthews Band described as “lovely people making irritating music for terrible people who think they’re great people.”
I happen to really like DMB’s peak 90s albums. If I am a terrible person, however, then it’s in a different way than the stereotypical DMB fan.
Yeh. I never understood all the hate lobbed their way.
Maybe I’m just a terrible person.
I also quite enjoy Dave Matthews Band. I even like Maroon 5. Never been the type to care what other people think about a band. I either like it or I don’t. No excuses. Also, I don’t always trust the motivation of why people like or dislike a certain band. Not since day 1 of moving into my freshman dorm when I was hanging a Pink Floyd poster on my wall and had someone scoff at it because Pink Floyd were “out of style”. At that moment I had the sound of The Doors “You cannot petition the lord with prayer” in my head with the words “music does not go out of style”.
Did the monk buy lunch?
Myth busting the spiral staircases in Castkes:
https://triskeleheritage.triskelepublishing.com/mediaeval-mythbusting-blog-2-the-man-who-invented-the-spiral-staircase-myth/
Well, I didn’t have my computer with me this weekend, so I didn’t do so well keeping up with the Deadpan page.
We certainly missed those who couldn’t make it this time, but it was good to have the Saturday Zoom call and at least chat live.
Many thanks to Ryah (and Jay) for the excellent hosting. I know things didn’t always go smoothly (but, it wouldn’t be a Deadpan Gathering without a few bits of oddity), but overall it was a great trip.
Looking forward to next year and hopefully getting a full Deadpan turnout.
I agree, it was fun
Missed you all. It sounded like fun. I hope to see everyone next year.
Jack, With over a thousand comments is there going to be a new page soon?
As you wish:
http://jackmangan.com/deadpan-is-lovely-in-the-fall/
I’m sticking to my iPhone:
https://youtu.be/3sooI3ZFw_Q?si=TxDdU18vjZgTTn-A