1,062 thoughts on “MultiPalooza”

  2. The new James Bond flick was fine.

    But a I’ve noticed since Birds of Prey that I just don’t enjoy modern action flicks as much as I used too. What is weird this doesn’t seems to effect older films as I really enjoyed the rewatch of Aliens and The Fifth Element.

  3. I’ve found that for new action movies and shows, I’m waiting for the action scenes to pass, so that the interesting stuff can resume again.

    John Wick movies are the exception to this rule.

  4. And so, the other night we watched the J-Pop Star Wars episode (skipped ep 1, fearing it might be a bit intense for a 3-yr-old).

    Yeah…. It was…. ummm.

    What have you all thought of this show? We have yet to watch any more.

  10. This week I’ve been playing Rime, a game that was one of the monthly games for PS Plus. A good looking arcade adventure with a ending I was not expecting.

    Now I just have play through Chapter 2 again to get 100% of the trophies

        • We tried watching it about a year ago. I’m sure it was ground breaking stuff back in the day, but it did not look like it had aged well to us and we gave up on it pretty quickly.

          So, less than zero interest in some prequel series.

  18. Crap joke for the evening;

    Husband to wife ‘ am I the only one you’ve slept with?’

    ‘Yes’ replied my wife , ‘all the others were nines or tens ‘

  23. I sense a disturbance in the Forcebook, as if a thousand voices wanted to cry out about political nonsense and were suddenly silenced.

  24. Hey gang! The palooza was a blast. Definitely got a broader feel for the movie with other perspectives.

    During the palooza I mentioned that I have set up a business for my wife who makes custom wood burning plaques. Apologies for the shameless plug, but if anyone doesn’t mind, please share the links. This is for the actual custom plaques.

    https://www.etsy.com/listing/1081724902/create-custom-hand-crafted-wood-burning?ref=listings_manager_grid

    and this is her shop in general where we have sugar skulls, pre-burned plaques, and flight boards (coming soon).

    https://www.etsy.com/shop/HedysWoodWonders

    • Great book. I really recommend it. It’s one of the more original books I’ve read over recent years. I’m looking forward to reading the sequel.

  30. So that book I was reading? “Together We Will Go” by J Michael Straczynski?

    Holy shit. Just wow.

    Dark, funny, brilliant, thought-provoking, deeply moving. Even a hollowed out, jaded, bitter, old crusty like me was verklempt at a few places. Me!

    And I truly never knew how it was going to turn out.

    It’s JMS, but not Sci-Fi at all, even if the premise is a little far-fetched.

    • Sounds intriguing. I do see in the description “We get to know them through access to their texts, emails, voicemails, and the daily journal entries they write as the price of admission for this trip.”. Is it safe to assume that this would be much easier to access in print form than in audio form? I do most of my “reading” anymore in audio books but sometimes the format just doesn’t work well.

        • Narration is definitely a key element, but I’m wondering if there is any kind of crazy visual format used. I once tried and audio book and was hopelessly lost until I looked it up and found that the “book” was put in the format of clippings from newspaper/magazine articles, journal entries, etc. If you couldn’t see the format the text was in, you really had no idea what you were supposed to be getting from it. Sounds like this book doesn’t necessarily have anything that crazy going on or it would have probably caught your attention.

  32. So Black Widow has went ‘free’ on Disney+, I enjoyed it when it was released even though the side characters (especially Natasha’s sister) were more interesting than Natasha.

  35. Watched “The History of Future People” on Netflix.
    Sometimes you just have to stop worrying about the “reality” (science, math, physics) of your fiction and enjoy the story being told. This is one of those.
    I give it “two thumbs up”.

  36. I have just finished an oddysee that has taken me 10 days. Well technically, still 10% of the project to go but most of the back breaking stuff is over.
    Why I did this it’s own post but I now have about 140′ of underground, 2″ conduit running from the utilities at the street back to my house. This involved passing under my driveway, going through the woods, under a sidewalk, accidentally ripping through buried gutter pipes, then passing through the hole I had to drill/chissel through my foundation into my crawl space. Oh, I also had to dig carefully as I had to un-earth existing cable/phone lines that had been buried 25 years ago … without damaging them.
    I would work from early morning until dark. Then lay on an icepack for 20 minutes, hit the shower, grab some food and go to bed to start the whole thing again the next day.
    Apparently I am not as young as I used to be. By day 3 even my fingers hurt. I could barely close my hand around a door knob and turn it.
    I would have finished 3 days ago but the rain started. So add sucking mud and mosquitos to the fun. Oh, also delays caused by the ditch flooding when it rained really hard. Mud. Everything covered in so much mud.
    Yesterday though, I finally got all the major piping and “pull through” boxes in place, re-ran my existing cable/internet and got it hooked up.
    Now, I am ready to have them run fibre and high/speed internet back to my house. Hope it is worth it.
    Today I rest.

        • Funny about that.
          The salesman came out and said “Absolutely no problem. They can get the fibre back you your house.”
          “They couldn’t a few years ago when I tried this.” I replied.
          “Oh no, it will be no problem.” He insisted.

          2 weeks later …

          I walk up to the road to find 2 installer trucks and their drivers are just standing there looking at my property in stunned silence.
          “Look at the thing the sales guy said would be no problem for YOU.” I offered.
          One of the guys just slowly shook his head in disgust and said “Yeh. They’ll do that.”

          There were there for hours just trying to find the “drop” which was run from their distribution box on the other side of the road. Finally they had to call their manager.
          He came out and couldn’t find it either so after 20 minutes of looking he declared they couldn’t lay the fibre on the ground through the woods so they couldn’t do the install.
          BTW – my current “cable” service can’t stream movies without intermittent buffering and their internet service drops in and out very briefly but frequently which is a problem for a lot of things.

  38. So today I started a non fiction books about the first man into space.

    The prolog covers a failed Vostok launch, a trial run before manned flights and it contained two dogs. The onboard bomb (yes the Soviets were that paranoid) didn’t explode so the parachute deployed and the capsule landed in Siberia. The dogs were stuck in the capsule, in sub zero temperatures for three days. When the capsule was finally reached the dogs had survived.

    So that got me in the feels as I was walking home.

    Sentimental is me.

  47. I live in a condo complex. For those who have been, think something similar to Jack’s place. The person who just delivered my food complained because her GPS took her to the complex but not right to my particular unit.
    Not sure what she expected me to do about it.

    Gotta love first world problems.

    • I have little experience with Doordash or any delivery services, but according to my daughter, the drivers who come into her boba shop are often super cranky.

  53. JW: Foundation Episode 4

    I’m rather enjoying the slow burn of this tv series , reminding me of pre Star Wars sci-fi series and films.

    I guess it helps I remember very little of the books, End of Eternity being my fav Asimov novel /shrugs

  55. JW: Squid Game episode 1

    Well everybody’s talking about so thought I would give it a go.

    I started off with the English dub but it got annoying so switched back to English subtitles and the original Korean.

    Intriguing start.

    • I’m not sure if I will watch it.
      Seems like a repackaged version of that franchise where people wake up in some deadly “escape room” and this guy with a deep voice keeps giving them deadly things to do to try and escape.
      Can’t remember the name of those films. Never watched more than a few minutes of any of them.

    • Teresa and I watched it over the course of four days. More Running Man than Hunger Games, and there were a lot of interesting things happening outside of the “game.” I would put the violence somewhere between the Matrix and Game of Thrones, I found GOT actually more gruesome. We like it though, I would recommend it and like Pixie, I can’t watch the SAW movies.

  57. Watched the Last Blockbuster docu on Netflix.
    Eh, it was mildly informative and mildly entertaining. The woman who runs the store seems like a sweet old lady.*

    *probably not too much older than us

  61. We visited the drive-thru animal attraction up in northern AZ today. Was fun. . . until the 2 hour drive home turned into 5 hours, due to traffic.

  66. My laptop has a touch screen and I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I’ve actually used the touch screen functionality.

  67. I remember being a college-aged dude and debating the girlfriend about Columbus. I didn’t disagree with her that he was a racist oppressor, but I argued that he deserved credit for bravely exploring and changing global perceptions about the earth. (It was a friendly debate, btw.)

    I can look back and admit that my point has not aged well. We’re slowly evolving and growing and figuring it out.

  75. So just finished a book called Beyond by Stephen Walker.

    If you have interest in space flight the bits that cover the Mercury program are going to be old hat but the coverage of the Soviet space programme is illuminating and there was much about Gagarin’s flight I hadn’t known.

  86. Never underestimate the power of being shown “The big picture”
    ——-
    After Shatner climbed out of the capsule, he hugged Bezos. “What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine,” Shatner told Bezos through tears. “I am overwhelmed. I had no idea.”

      • I’ve read 22. But 2 of them I’m counting even though they don’t exactly match. The collected stories of Arthur C. Clark and The Complete Robot by Isaac Asimov I’m counting because I feel like I’ve read enough of their short stories across other anthologies to count.

        Also, I think the list should include Dreams with Sharp Teeth by Harlan Ellison.

  88. CW: In the Mouth of Madness

    Only 1H 35 so decided to watch the film with my tea.

    So much smoking in this film that is just the first 20 minutes.

  97. Yesterday was rough, following COVID jab #3. Was exhausted and sore all damn day.

    I think today will be better, but the jury is still out.

  98. I did take some life time back and went to a matinee of Venom 2.

    Jesus, this movie is utter lunacy. A lot like the first, but they may have upped the crazy a bit further. Pure nonsense with no consistency of plot of rules or logic or anything. Like a B-movie with a giant budget. It’s ridiculous and fun.

    Also (not a spoiler), can we please be done with the banshee scream superpower?

    • Gonna assume utter stupidity on the teacher here, but allow for the possibility that we’re not getting all the context. Maybe the educator had a bunch of disclaimers, and the point of the lesson was that sometimes there aren’t two equal and valid sides to an argument.

      • I’m not sure we can entirely pin this on the teacher. If this is in a place like Texas where teachers are required by law to do this–look up the recent controversy on teaching the Holocaust–then it could be more complicated than it appears.

        Of course, the teacher could be 100% an asshat too.

    • Yeah, I can’t say this was something I was wanting or desiring. I’ll catch it when it gets to whatever streaming service or blu-ray rental carries it someday.

      Although, that’s about my attitude with just about everything movie wise these days.

  105. Started A Bug’s Life for movie night for the sick little one.

    About 20 minutes in….. I hope it gets better. I haven’t seen it since the theater.

      • Most credible sources indicate he was given bad intel, and he disowned it afterwards. He definitely called that a “blot on his record.”

        But look, I do agree with you that if he knowingly lied, then those led to innocent deaths. . . which is unforgivable.

        (One of countless reasons why I’ll never join in on the retro fondness for fucking dubya)

  109. Well The Expanse rewatch continues, finished S3 and started S4.

    S4 was a bit of a misfire in my view but New Terra is just one huge BDO and that is a trope I love.

  113. Fortunately my son (almost always nicknamed The Boy as in Homer Simpson referring to Bart) has Peacock so I was able to watch Halloween Kills. I thought it was a great ride. I’ve been lamenting the amount of good slasher films in the modern age of haunting and possession stuff. I don’t ever (since I was a young teenager) get actually scared in horror movies. So I’m just not taken in by stuff that builds a spooky atmosphere. The latest Halloween definitely did not disappoint on gore and the story was enough to carry it all. That’s all I really look for in horror.

    • You know, I’ve only seen the original and one of the sequels – – maybe part 4?

      It is great that Jamie Lee Curtis is still involved with the recent Halloween films.

      • There is some definite oddness in watching these movies as everything up until the remakes (and arguably 3 which had nothing to do with anything) were the same story arc. Then there were the Rob Zombie sequels that I never watched. Then to add even more confusion, there was Halloween (2018) which was a direct sequel to the first movie (thereby ignoring all other sequels/remakes/etc.). The latest movie is a sequel to the (2018) movie, but pays a lot of homage to all of the other movies.

        I give Marvel a lot of crap for involving too many characters and plot lines. But at least they tend to stick to one story.

  114. This should be interesting. I love Mel Brooks to death. But his style of humor changed over the years and I just don’t know how well even he will pick up from his old style after so many years. He also just can’t get away with the kind of humor he was pulling off at that time in the current hyper politically correct environment. But if any can make it work it would definitely be Mel and I trust him to not cave in or alter his style for anyone or anything.

    • No lies detected.

      I think the main difference between Gibson and the other guys named in the article is that Mel was once a powerful onscreen box office draw. The studio decision-makers probably still look at him and see dollar signs.

      The rest are behind the scenes.

    • I feel like Columbo needs to investigate this. Seems like some kind of nefarious murder plot made to look like an accident. Plus I just want to hear Columbo say “just one more thing” to Alec Baldwin until he can stand it no longer.

    • I was once shot in the face on a movie set I was working on.
      It was the CU shot for a stunt scene in which the actor jumps of the top of a car, rolls to his feet and fires.
      They got the scene set up and locked the camera down with a reflector board (lighting) on either side of the camera. The idea is to start camera and then the cinematographer gets out of there.
      Except it was a little windy that day and the reflectors were wiggling, which made the light on the actor’s face move around. So the AD screamed at the gaffer who told me and another crew member to get in there and hold them still. It’s all about getting the shot and moving on and YOU don’t want to be the guy holding the team back. So I jumped on it.
      SO… guy jumps, rolls, pops up and I am suddenly staring down the barrel of a big ‘ol hand gun from about 5 feet away. Seems like the “357 magnum” was the in gun back then.
      I had enough time to think “Oh Sh” and BOOM!
      Wadding hit me in the face. Left a pick mark on my cheek and took my sun glasses off my face.
      I suspect without the sunglasses I would have sustained eye damage.
      We got the shot though and everyone moved along without so much as a “sorry about that”.
      It was a glamorous time in my life.

  136. Well, the new Dune was quite the spectacle. You can tell Dennis Villneneuve was a passionate fan of the material.

    I enjoyed it, but I’m also well familiar with the books, the previous movie, and the Sci-Fi mini-series.

    Like Blade Runner 2049, I’m not sure how well it’s going to connect with those who don’t have any background in the material.

    Hopefully he gets to give us part 2.

    • Well said, everyone. I loved it, but I know the book and the Lynch movie. A bunch of the scenes might feel like quasi-mystical mumbojumbo, if you aren’t as familiar with the story.

      Hans Zimmer’s score is fantastic. The visuals are gorgeous. The pacing and storytelling are spot on.

      Finally, Dune done right.

      LMK if we need a spoiler discussion thread.

    • In a rare Mangan Parent’s Date Night.

      We saw Dune, too!

      I am not familiar with the books or movie. I did watch and enjoy the mini series, but don’t recall much from it.

      I really enjoyed this movie. Alor. I think a theatrical viewing is a must. All of the acting was really good.

      Oscar Isaac was wonderful and strong and sincere. He can also pull off a mountain man beard like nobody’s business.

      Even Jason Mamoa was good.

      I will be very annoyed if Part 2 doesnt happen. You cannot make these sagas without all of the parts. C’mon WB Studios.

    • We saw Dune last night too. Loved it. T Cat had one worm nitpick but other than that, this was an amazing adaptation.

      We also had the same discussion about how much more enjoyable the movies is if you had read the book(s). I think there is enough there that if you don’t know anything about the story, the movie is still good. That seems to fall in line with some reviews I have read, but since I don’t know anyone like that, I’m just guessing.

        • Anyway I enjoyed it, judging from Twitter I was not the only one who thought the dialogue was too quiet at some points, almost like a Christopher Nolan film with the sound mixing.

    • I got my first one in 2006. Used it every day until it died, then got a new one that’s still going strong (even though I use it less frequently these days.)

      I didn’t realize the first iPod came out in 2001.

  139. Replaced the fan on my Dell laptop. . . which crapped out about 1 month after the warranty expired.

    What a royal pain that was.

    I’d like to recommend a new company slogan that accurately reflects the customer experience:

    Dell. Because fuck you.

    • The laptop I got my daughter for college was a Dell. I also bought a squaretrade warranty…which I’ve just finished using for the third time.

      Bought her a new one this year as, even though the warranty still has another year of coverage, having to dance around sending it in and being without it for a couple of weeks while she borrows another one from my wife has become untenable.

      Two times, the hinges that hold the display literally fell apart. This part summer, the whole main board just up and crapped out. I’ve never had a laptop experience so terrible.

      Definitely done with Dell. Whatever they once were, it has well and truly fallen in the crapper.

      • My last two laptops have been HP, I would reccomend them.

        Only downside to HP is they keep selling obsolete hardware long past it’s sell by date so always check the model of CPU before buying.

  142. Thanks for validating my Dell hate. I’m not just a complainer.

    Ugh, I’m in my late 40s and I have product brand aversions. This is not my beautiful house!

    • Things appeared to go smoothly and my laptop booted up with no sound, everything appeared to be working but no sound.

      luckily Realtek had released an update for the sound driver and once installed voila! sound was back.

  151. CW: Moonraker

    I haven’t watched it all the way through since I saw it at the cinema back in 1979.

    The first Bond film influenced by Star Wars, silly but fun.

    Thus Sprach Zarathustra is played at the bird shoot. Also the little musical theme from Close Encounters is played out as the key combination to the laboratory in Venice.

    Weird to think this was made before the Space Shuttle flew into space as it features so much in the film.

  153. First concert in 22 months. We’re off to see Primus playing A Farewell to Kings ( Rush) in its entirety.

    Just Pixie and me. We’re both triple-stuck, will both be (the only people in the theater who will be) masked the entire time.

  155. Good grief!
    About 8 hours after my shot, my body suddenly decided it had Covid and went to battle stations., I felt achy and tired.
    It was about 11:30 and I crawled off to bed and it just got worse. Fever, aching joints all over, pain behind the eyes. Little or no sleep for me. Then about 5:30 this morning It lifted and I felt great… for about 30 minutes.
    Since then it has been kind of in waves.

    I’ll say this, if that is just a small taste of how you feel if you get Covid … I want nothing to do with it!
    Apart from that, the injection site feels like I had a Tetnus shot.
    Going to try and get some sleep now.

  157. Primus did a very good job with the Rush album. Les Claypool can’t hit the same vocal notes as Geddy Lee – – and he even said so – – but it was great to hear the songs from A Farewell to Kings.

    Less than 10% of the attendees were masked.

  161. RE: Van’s link above, I was thinking of this after seeing Dune the other night. . .

    The only remaining “sacred” unfilmed text of my youth is Neuromancer.

    Snow Crash was a big deal for me, but not quite Neuromancer, )and I think that’s underway(?)). I’d also really loved the Hyperion books, but fuck Dan Simmons.

        • Most of what I read is older, but sure, we should focus on modern-day authors too. But I’m commenting on the formative books from my younger years. Most of those have now been adapted well.

          It’s nigh-impossible for a book to come out now that could be as impactful or meaningful as Neuromancer, just because of the time in my life when I discovered it.

          • Two others that come to mind:

            -A Wizard of Earthsea. Forget the awful Sci-Fy Channel miniseries

            -Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. The animated version is just OK. The problem is that every Batman film adaptation since has been a partial rip-off of TDKR.

    • Honestly I liked Snow Crash better than Neuromancer, but that just boils down to personal opinion. I don’t think either is worthy of more or less praise than the other.

      As for a Neuromancer movie, Johnny Mnemonic wasn’t close enough for you? (ducks to avoid chair being furiously hurled in his direction)

          • I’ve reread them both in the past 5 years.For me, Snow Crash is a 10/10 – it’s more fun, but Neuromancer is a work of art. I don’t think Snow Crash is even Neal Stephenson’s best.

            The prose, the ideas, the imagery – – it’s just perfection.

  165. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiNye3_punzAhWrTDABHfpHAxEQFnoECDcQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Feditorial.rottentomatoes.com%2Farticle%2Fthe-10-scariest-horror-movies-ever%2F&usg=AOvVaw2vEY7ipyKBxL-CYAarUZtC

    1. The Exorcist (1973) ·
    2. Hereditary (2018) ·
    3. The Conjuring (2013) ·
    4. The Shining (1980) ·
    5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) ·
    6. The Ring .
    7. Halloween (1978)
    8. Sinister
    9. Insidious
    10. IT (2017)

    • Interesting list. I’ve only seen 6.5 of them.

      I have never found slasher movies to be scary, just gross and occasionally shocking.

      And OK, The Ring is worthy, but really, it’s just that one incredible scene. The rest is pretty goofy.

      • Same with the slasher/splatter films.
        I’ve only seen 3 on this list. I like spooky more than bloody. It’s easier to make “jump scare” slasher films then to write a really creative, scary script and I suspect they make the same amount of money.

  179. I think I ran over a squirrel. Traffic was around me so I couldn’t do a sudden stop. I didn’t feel anything so I hope that means he managed to get out of the way. In sad now

  183. Hubby and I have been watching the newest season of The Movies That Made us on Netflix. Because of this, we watched the original Halloween earlier this week.
    In a nod to that, I think today’s movie will be the 2018 remake.

    The Netflix write up: A masked killer who went on a Halloween night murder spree 40 years ago escapes incarceration, targeting the victim who got away—and her family

  244. We’ve been watching the What We Do in the Shadows tv series, which so far, has been pretty hilarious.

    I’ve never seen the movie, but I’m told it’s not necessary.

  245. It has stopped snowing. Fortunately it’s warm enough that it melted as soon as it hit the ground. Everything is wet but not white

  248. So we had to go to the specialty pet shop today to get frozen mice for the snake. Always fun to browse on there….

    They had a Goliath Birdeater spider in a tank, which was pretty awesome. I’ve seriously never seen such a big spider. It looked fake. I wish I’d taken a picture.

    I’m kinda creeped out even thinking that this thing is in the same state as me.

  251. So after reading Twitter I discovered that the main overhead lighting in rooms is called the big light and a lot of people hate switching it on.

    Care to chime in North Americans?

  253. I finally watched Event Horizon last night. I’ve heard for decades how terrible it is, but curiosity got the best of me, so I borrowed it from the library.

    I liked it a lot more than I expected. It has flaws, sure, but I’m not sure why it’s considered to be a turkey.

  255. Hubby and I watched Aliens last night. Instead of getting our copy out, we watched it on Disney+. Turns out, this is the theatrical version. It took us a bit to figure this out.
    We kept wondering what happened to certain scenes, did they cut them? Nope, we just got use to the extended version.

    • Rewatched it with one of my sisters a while back and we realised it was the theatrical cut when a certain scene near the beginning was missing.

      • I saw someone on FB talk about the scene where Ripley learns her daughter died of old age while she was in cryosleep. That’s apparently a deleted scene.

  257. Windows 11 update is a disaster so far. They seemed to have changed something crazy about the Documents, Music, and Pictures folders so that the path is no longer users/… So, Google Sync and iTunes have now gone kablooey on me until I figure out how to redirect them. Going to tell Mrs. Asshat to avoid the update until I can figure it out so she doesn’t have to go through the same issues. What surprises me is that the internet is not already flooded with questions/answers on this. I can’t possibly be the first to have this happen.

  263. Watched the Nick Cage madness that is Mom and Dad last night. Great movie, horrible-horrible-horrible ending. I’d still watch it again.

    • “Nick Cage madness.” Redundant? I haven’t heard of this one.

      I’m still morbidly curious about Mandy (that’s the one with the giant chainsaw fight?)

      • I don’t hold the same Nicolas Cage affection as most of our generation. He’s fine – – and Raising Arizona!! – – but otherwise, eh. I certainly won’t watch a movie just for him.

        • I loved him in Raising Arizona, didn’t like his mid period when he first turned to action movies. Lately he has been taking on really interesting new stuff and I’ve started liking him again. I think he’s definitely a Shatner-level over-actor (as opposed to an extremely talented actor like Alan Tudyk), but it’s fun to watch. Mandy was OK. Willy’s Wonderland was fantastic. Prisoners of the Ghostland was good, but I don’t see how they came to the conclusion that it was a horror movie.

          • I think we’re on the same page. He probably got incredible paychecks for all of those weak action movies, so I guess I don’t begrudge him that. It’s not like I’ve ever sat down and watched Gone in 60 Seconds,

    • I loved these books. It would be cool to see The Shrike done right on film, but I’m torn.
      Dan Simmons is a truly ugly, mean-spirited, awful person. It’s hard to separate art from artist in his case.

      (I should practice what I preach, huh?)

  269. So looking at an ad for a Sonos Roam and wondering when it became socially acceptable to play loud music when you are outside at the beach or camping.

    • If you are an aficionado of the beach, this has been a problem for a while now. As if the assumption that everyone wants to hear your music (instead of say … the surf) wasn’t bad enough, often all your neighbors can hear is either end of the sound frequency. So just the base or just the very high end.
      In essence… even if your neighbor LIKES your music you are just inflicting noise.

  273. I believe I was hit on today. Took Leeloo to the park, and the only other people there were a mom and her 4-yo-son. She immediately introduced herself while the kids played, then within a minute told me she was single, was chatting me up, etc.
    And she was attractive! Serious guns. And here I am out of shape with my terrible shaggy hair, my terrible shaggy beard, the Mangan hairline, etc. Completely taken by surprise.

    And look, I was not playing into it, initiating, etc. Happily married and all that. I’m not a player, nor do I crush a lot. It was just weird.

    She caught on pretty quickly to my hints (and my wedding ring maybe?), then asked what my wife does for work, then started talking astrology, asked my wife’s sign and mine, said that Capricorns (me) and Scorpios (Tiffany) are good romantic matches, then said that my sign and hers (Gemini) were fine for friendly conversations, but not a good pairing for romance.

    Just recording the experience for posterity.

    • Well you know what they say, the only thing worse than being hit on is when you stop being hit on..

      That sounded better in my head than typed out.

      • Van jokes about it … but As I’m reading this I’m realizing it has been a long time since I even had a gay waiter flirt with me… and even then they were clearly trying to up their tip but still I appreciated the effort.

        Yea for you Jack!

  275. So this weekend I will be going to a concert for the first time in almost two years.

    It involves a train journey and staying overnight.

    Go me!

  279. Carrying on from the Facebook “conversation”.

    I think when Dune 2: Dune Harder comes out it will make Dune a better film. As of know, for me, its just kinda…. there. Its a real pretty there, but still.

    RICHARD JORDON *IS* DUNCUN IDAHO CHANGE MY MIND!

  290. So got a couple of rear speakers for my tv’s sound bar.

    They sit there needing to be unpacked.

    Apathy strikes at the most inopportune moments.

  291. So last night we did NOT see Eternals, we instead saw the latest Bond film. Pixie’s choice, for her birthday.

    Anyone else see it? Any non-spoilery reactions? I thought it was aight.

    • That’s in my pile of “maybe Redbox….maybe Netflix/HBO/etc….”

      Honestly, with the wretched mess that was Spectre and the dubious thing that was Skyfall, I don’t have nearly the enthusiasm for a Bond flick that my younger self would have.

    • I enjoyed it but have no desire to watch it again.

      Would have to like to have seen more of the newly graduated agent and the 007 woman in action.

  295. As the world awakens me so hard, my values have been changed
    I make a promise to myself: Never again
    A dusty godforsaken path, endless to my dismay
    I know these are the badlands, somehow I’ll find my way

  296. So Moana is really just a run-of-the-mill Disney flick, chock full of tropes. But damn, that Lin-Miranda Manuel knows how to get a song stuck in your head.

    The big “How Far I’ll Go” epic is fine, but “You’re Welcome” and “Shiny” are both complete burrowers. The latter is the best Glam-Rock song since actual Bowie, maybe?

  330. Not sure if it’s me noticing all of a sudden or an actual trend. Seems like every single brewery and restaurant I go to has “live music” which ALWAYS consists of a single man (90% of the time) or woman (10% of the time) with nothing but an acoustic guitar doing slow acoustic covers of typical 70s, 80s, or 90s hit songs. I’m about at my wits end with this crap.

    • I used to be that guy at some local coffee shops and even one wine bar.

      I don’t get out much to bars or breweries these days, but I do recall seeing it a bit pre-COVID, pre-baby.

      I actually don’t mind live music, as long as I can hold a conversation with my dinner guests and the wait staff. Well, and as long as they’re not terrible.

      • First I’ll take my foot out of my mouth. Then I’ll clarify that I don’t have a problem with that particular style of live musician in general. Just wish I could get some variety. There used to be bands in multiple formats at different venues. now it just seems like the same thing everywhere I go. As a guy who typically only likes the first version of a song that I hear, I can say that one of the best things I’ve heard (and will likely, unfortunately never hear again) was a cover of The Beatles “Lonely People” with an insanely rocked out guitar solo jammed into it. But I don’t hear that kind of thing any more. Just slow acoustic versions of the same 20 songs.

        • You’re good! haha I didn’t mean a defensive response.

          My daughter has made the same complaint recently. Apparently emo covers of old songs is a thing. She was telling me about a slow, dreary acoustic version of “Take on Me” by A-Ha in some video game she played.

          Can we blame the guy who did that slowed down “Mad World” cover for starting this trend?

          • We can put the blame anywhere we want. Come to think of it, I have heard some slowed down remakes in very recent films. Can’t remember any offhand and I tend to expunge them from memory as fast as I can. Admitting we have a problem is the first step. Then we can start taking baby steps back to some sort of diversity.

  331. Hubby and I are watching something on WW2. The narrator said they knew the area like the palm of their hand. So…not at all?

    If is saw five pictures of just the palms of hands, I highly doubt I could pick mine out from any of the others

  332. So I’m watching ‘ABBA on the BBC’, basically a collection of the groups appearance on BBC over the years.

    Not a bad way to pass part of the evening.