1,004 thoughts on “One Eye for a Thousand

  1. Morning Pan
    tomorrow is a stat holiday. Because the husband and I believe in the cause, we will spend at least a little bit of time watching some of the ceremonies on tv, and not just goof off the whole day.

  2. So for no apparent reason the catch up player for the main commercial terrestrial tv channel has recently dropped a load of 60s and 70s British sci-fi/fantasy shows.

    So slowly going through Sapphire and Steel, a show I only ever caught the odd episode of when it originally aired. It’s a very low budget and creepy sci-fi show from the 70s. Bloody great it is too.

  3. If you haven’t already watch it, there is a little documentary on Netflix about the filming of The Queen’s Gambit, well worth 15 minutes of your time.

  4. Ok, I’m watching the latest House of the Dragon episode and wondering if it will ever be explained why the King is ageing much faster than his brother.

  5. Tue elder daughter was down to go see Zeal & Ardor tonight. She had a blast. It was great to see her cut loose and have fun.

    Oh, and the show was great too. This is a band that I thought were going to take over the world – – but here they were in a tiny club. But they were amazing.

    They’re about as heavy as I get.

  6. I put in my first, “independent” quote yesterday. It was part of a bidding contract so I don’t actually expect anything to come of it but still, it was a strange feeling.

  7. Even though the mornings start chilly, we’ve been getting above average days, weather wise. Normally we’d turn on the fireplace by now but it’s too hot to even have the pilot light going.
    I can’t decide if I like this or not.

  8. So just watched the season finale of Kevin Can F**k Himself. I loved S1 of the show, S2 was was the last and boy did they stick the ending..just great.

  9. Not trying to vaguepost, but I don’t think it’s my news to share in detail.

    I’ve just learned that the wife of an east coast podcast power couple is at the end with her cancer battle. They’ve been off Facebook for awhile, so I had no idea. Absolutely gutted by this news.

    I will share more as it becomes appropriate.

  10. Walgreens is apparently employing an existentialist AI as I just received the following message
    “we are calling to inform you that you have prescriptions that are ready to be picked up or have been delayed.”

    I now know exactly the same amount of information I knew before I received their phone call.

  11. Well, we have tix for the little one to see Disney on Ice show with her BFF tomorrow, but now she’s sick and will probably miss out.
    Murphy’s Law appears to be the constant here.

    Big events planned or no, I hate these days.

      • Birds of Prey was fantastic. The Suicide Squad (shut up Jack) was great.

        WW is maybe the most overrated film of all time. People wanted to love it desperately. That 3rd act is woof.

      • I think there is a definite impact from setting expectations for a film. From a psychology aspect it’s a framing issue. If you set your expectations really high, you are likely to be let down because the film won’t match those expectations. If you set them really low you might really like a movie far better. My best examples are Dude, Where’s My Car? and Grandma’s Boy. Neither was an insanely fantastic movie. But my expectations were so low for each of these that when they turned out to actually be really good movies, they became favorites for me.

        Long story short… too late. Always set your expectations low for a movie. Go out and find a reason to set them low. Work at it. It will pay off in the long run.

        The other side of this, from a psychology perspective, is to not overhype a movie when recommending it to a friend. It can have negative repercussions of setting their expectations too high.

    • Just saw him get photographed with the cast of the new Hellraiser adaption and I did not recognise him from when he was getting interview for the first Hellraiser film,

  12. Hubbiless tonight. I guess that means life is back to normal in school since it’s back to in person parent-teacher interviews.

    • Agreed. However I have a lot of issues with a lot of the takes on it. No spoils here, but I have loved nearly every episode. It’s HER show after all.

    • That shot of the u-boat coming up out of the water at the very beginning looks like someone did an extreme closeup shot of one of those toys that you would get in a box of cereal. The little sub that you would put baking soda in and it would alternately dive and come back up out of the water (and that never actually worked like it was supposed to).

    • Will get mine next week.
      Got my flu shot yesterday.

      First place I scheduled was a complete and total cluster. 40 minutes after my appt time they had still not even processed me in so I got on my phone and scheduled at a CVS pharmacy down the road. The CVS was polite, efficient and everything the other place wasn’t. I had a 4pm appt there and they had me out of there by 4:04

      • Yeah mine was a bit of a palaver. Went to the first place, got told to go to another place, stood in the queue for half an hour and then was told to go back to the first place

  13. Time for a rant!
    I think I need a new dentist. Every time an appointment is made lately, they ask for it to be rescheduled. Today, they called a half hour before my actual appointment. I’m very lucky I can change my schedule with a drop of a hat, not everybody has that privilege.
    Although, I don’t think they care at this point, just gave them over $4k to get work done. They have my money, who care about anything else

      • Yeah, the only reason I hadn’t moved already is because I still don’t have the new bridge I’ve paid an ungodly amount for. It theory it was supposed to go in this morning. Now, maybe Tuesday

  14. Last night I randomly watched an episode of “Atlanta“. I’ve just never managed to catch an episode of it.
    I actually really liked it.
    It had kind of a twilight zone feel to it.

  15. Ok at I’m a sucker for a certain type of story when it comes to monsters, Werewolf by Night did not disappoint. Worth 50 minutes of your time.

  16. So Sonos released a firmware update for the Arc soundbar that completely buggered up using Sub woofer with the Arc. No fix yet released but a work around is to turn off Trueplay. So did this and yesterday watching a documentary with one of my sisters:

    S: What’s that noise?

    Me: Just the sun woofer kicking in

    S: oh…

  17. I don’t have time to re-watch shows like some folks do. Hell I barely have time to watch new shit. But I’d like to thank the disparaging comments about the Sopranos to make me wonder if I was just living thru nostalgia. I have started a re-watch of the Sopranos with a current eye and, yes, it’s still fucking brilliant.

    • I’m almost done with season 1. A lot more comedy than I’d expected.

      It’s well-written, well-acted, and I’m invested in the characters.

  18. We watched the Hellraiser reboot and followed with the original the following day. The original was as dated as I expected it to be, but I still find the story interesting. The new reboot was fun and it was nice to see what a modern take would look like. Ultimately these are B films, so they were never going to win any Oscars, but they are fun horror stories.

    • I’m curious to see this, but… Hulu ads…..

      I’ll probably watch Interview with the Vampire first.

      My real challenge, aside from my own limited free time is coordinating viewing times with Tiffany, who works nights.

    • My sympathies, Jack. Get well soon.
      T Cat caught covid last week from some of our friends. I’m still testing negative, but it hasn’t been a fun week.

      • Oh no. Best wishes to everyone in the ditto/T-cat household. 🙁 My only advice: rest. Rest rest rest rest rest.

        We’ve only had negative tests here, so it seems to be just a bad funk.

  19. Ok, after finishing The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis, I will now cry BULLSHIT to the ‘different medium’ excuse for poor book adaptions.

  20. I just finished a bunch of work on spec. A friend of mine mentors U of C writing students, as well as works as a writer in residence at a couple of libraries. I helped him redo some of his writer’s guides in the theory he’ll recommend me to some of the people he works with. Let’s see if it pans out.

  21. Crap joke for the day:

    Old priest wants to duck out to the pub for a schooner and a punt instead of hearing confession on Saturday afternoon.

    So he tells the new priest that he will have to cover confession. New priest objects, and says, “It’s my first day.. I don’t know what to do.”

    The old priest says “it’s easy … in the confessional there is the big book of sins: say someone comes in and confesses that they have missed mass on Sunday … look it up in the book and the penance is three hail Mary’s.”

    It all goes well with a few old ladies coming in and confessing to the usual minor infractions.

    But a good looking young girl comes in a confesses to a few minor sins, um’s and ahh’s a few times, and finally blurts out “I gave my boyfriend a head job.”

    Well, the young priest thumbed through the book of sins, but the important sins were in Latin. So he did not know that the penance for head jobs was under fellatio.

    In panic, he looked out of the curtain of the confessional and saw an alter boy.

    “Hey son, what does Father give for a head job.”

    “Two mars bars and a packet of chips!”

    • I’m falling really behind on the new shows. I blame that I’ve decided I’m going to once and for all make it through the book Silmarillion. And I have a nearly aphasia-like inability to remember names. I’m having to listen to a chapter, read a really long primer on the chapter (https://www.tor.com/series/the-silmarillion-primer/) and then listen to the chapter again. It’s really overwhelming my life.

      • We only just started this yesterday. Since we only watch an hour or so of TV a night, it takes us a while to get to things. Too many shows, too little time.

      • Same. Staying current on House of the Dragon and Rings of Power. Will probably catch up on Andor in a few weeks as both of those other shows are about to wrap their first seasons.

        What a time to be alive!

    • I feel skewered by so much of this.

      “candidate refuses to be available on WhatsApp, Snapchat, Viber, KIK, IMO, Line, or WeChat until such time as the candidate’s children make it impossible to ignore emerging communication methods.”

    • Much as I love the first one. . . It’s not like these movies are sacred texts.

      That said, how much more can really be done with the Airplane! 50-jokes-per-minute format?

      • I don’t really see a fresh take on this. I loved the first one, and even though I found the second one enjoyable, it already felt like they were pushing it.

        • On the other hand “Liam Neeson” is a similar name to “Leslie Nelson” so maybe most Americans will think the original actor is in it.

    • I love Airplane!, The Naked Gun, and Police Squad. But honestly, if it isn’t written by the Zucker, Abrams, Zucker team (and it won’t be) it simply won’t be those things that I love. It’s just one more remake/reivisioning/reimagining that I hate so very very much.

    • Much like “Blazing Saddles” I doubt seriously movies like Naked Gun and Airplane could get made today.

      I’m not optimistic as to what such a result would be.

      • Although there were definitely specific jokes (e.g., a 9 year old girl saying she likes her coffee like she likes her men). I think most of the types of jokes (e.g., stop calling me Shirley, it’s a big building with patients but that’s not important right now, nearly anything Johnny says, visual humor like the guy walking out of the mirror, etc.) would be just fine.

        As you brought up Mel Brooks, he is supposed to be working on a History of the World Part II series (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15715052/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2) so I guess we’ll actually get to test whether or not his humor will hold up. I am intrigued as I really don’t see Mel Brooks altering his style of humor for anyone or anything.

  22. I’ve never played any of the Dead Space games, but I’ve always wanted to. Now there is a remake of the first game. Maybe my procrastination has paid off?

  23. On the topic of films that couldn’t/ shouldn’t be made these days-
    I was flipping channels last night and came across “Weird Science” as it was just starting. I watched it and I will have to say that even with all of it’s many MANY faults (bad script, bad acting, disjointed ideas/plot devices to name a few)
    It still had a lot of stupid funny moments.

  24. So, we got tribbles as swag from the local Con last month. The little one was fascinated, so I got a DVD from the library to show her the original TOS episode. That disc was a “best of,” which had “The Trouble with Tribbles” and also “City on the Edge of Forever,” “Amok Time,” and “Balance of Terror.”
    She enjoyed “Tribbles” and was curious for more. I figured “City” was too odd and maybe a little grim and deep for a 4-year-old. (“Well they had to let the nice lady die because…”)
    Long story short: we watched Amok Time. I think she enjoyed it, but I also think she was baffled by it.

    I wish the dvd had had “The Doomsday Machine.”

  25. I just watched the 2nd episode of “the Irregulars”.
    I really want to like it. The premise is fun but So far it fails to live up to what it could be.
    The level of writing makes it seem like it’s aimed at a Middle School audience. I mean kids talking like modern American kids but with English accents in Sherlock Holmes’ London?
    It’s distracting and just feels lazy.

    • If it is for a “movie” and not a documentary, I have no problem with certain categories of “dramatic liscense”.
      Combining secondary charactures, condensing time periods… I’ll even allow the addition of fictional love interests so long as none of the historical even is attributed to them.

      I do have a problem with changing a main player’s motivations or inventing a plot point that never happened.

    • I wonder if the author of that article is aware that there was a 20th Century. . . .

      I do recall the cheesy “based on real events” horror movie, “The Stepfather” just took the story of Westfield, NJ, murderer, John List (Westfield again!) and speculated about what might have happened next.
      This was before he was found in his new life in Colorado.

      • I get disappointed when a film fires up the urge to find out more and then you find a lot of it was just made up. The Imitation Game took too many liberties with the truth and I never want to watch it again.

  26. My grandmother has been at the hospital for the past few days, most likely dying. At 105, it’s not overly surprising. Frankly, we all expected her to go sooner.
    What is strange is, my mother keeps sending me pics of her in distress. They are actually more and more mortifying each time. I know it’s her way of coping, but I still find it very weird.

    • 105 is pretty impressive.
      Sorry about the weirdness. My father in law just went through this and one of his kids insisted on posting pictures like that. It made the Siblings furious because their dad had told him for years that going this way (helpless and confused about who he was) would be his worst nightmare for how to go.
      It was not how he wanted anyone to remember him.

      Family is weird.

  27. So saw the new adaption of All Quiet on the Western Front today at the arty cinema.

    Well worth a watch, coming to Netflix on the 28th October.

  28. So we made it through ep 3 of She-hulk. My favorite parts of this show have been the little digs at toxic fake fan incel boys.

    My least favorite parts have been the painfully unfunny bits and fucking dumb, dumb sitcom moments.

    I like what this show is, I just wish it wasn’t so frequently dumb. Will we finish the season? Probably.

    • That’s sort of my take. If Marvel was going to make a show like Ally McBeal, aim it at a slightly younger audience, and make constant potshots at incels, it would be She-Hulk. I feel, at times the whole premise of the show is to troll incels and expectations in general. I still enjoyed it, although the constant fourth wall breaking takes a lot of the drama out of the guess characters. I wonder if it would have worked better as an animated series.

        • I guess I chalk that up to me not being familiar with She-Hulk in the comics. I understand that there was some fourth wall breaking there. I think of the emotional sacrifices of the Avengers in Infinity War and those same character actions are modified by fourth wall fiat seems to pull the curtain back a little too much for me. In Deadpool, everyone thinks his fourth wall breaking is a symptom of his insanity. I like that What-If is animated as it gives me a good separation between the different narratives. I’m not saying my take is the “correct” one, just relaying how I experience it. I will say that Tatiana Maslany elevates everything she is in.

      • Personally, I find the fourth wall breaking rather charming. I’ve not read the comic, but I’ve read that fourth wall breaking in the comics is kind of her thing.

        Never seen Deadpool

        • Tis, sir. She predates Deadpool in that and in the comics she even threw the head writer off a cliff. Simply delightful.

          Also have we really reached the point (not specified at you Ed Im just streaming here) that we are upset that a show goes after trolls? I don’t care if this shoes whole point (its not) is to go after misogynistic bully boys. I would watch 9, 30 min episodes, of Tatiana Maslany simply telling off trolls. “Uh derp this show’s whole point is to go after toxic fans”. Good.

          • I was saying that the toxic boy troll mockery is a good thing. The best thing. That never gets old.

            Dumbass 80s-90s slapstick sitcom jokes are what’s unfunny. Forced comedy is the worst.

            I liked some of She-Hulk’s 4th asides. They’re sometimes awkward, but they’re not the problem.

            I will finish the series before I really weigh in.

    • The V1 & V2 are exactly what these reminded me of.
      I also wondered why the media latched onto “Kamikaze drone”. In reality, these are nothing more then slow moving, extremely less expensive versions of a cruise missile.

      Sadly … given Putin’s now widespread use of these, the rest of us should brace ourselves for domestic terrorists utilizing their own improvised versions of these.

  29. I’m looking for supplies to go as Dr. Venture for Halloween (because I LOVE having no one who actually lives in my immediate vicinity know who they hell I am for Halloween). Found a listing for spirit gum on Amazon to attach the bald cap. The very first customer question is: “will it work to attach my baby to my chest so we can go as Kuato from “Total Recall”?” I want this person to be my new best friend

    https://www.amazon.com/Rubies-Costume-Spirit-Remover-Transparent/dp/B000IDCZXY/ref=sr_1_9?crid=O29KSRO6V6GS&keywords=bald%2Bcap%2Bkit&qid=1666183764&qu=eyJxc2MiOiI0LjE5IiwicXNhIjoiNC4yNSIsInFzcCI6IjQuMTgifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=bald%2Bcap%2Caps%2C305&sr=8-9&th=1

  30. So watched episodes 3 and 4 of Julia today, it’s a lovely show and even if cooking is not your thing (/raises hand) it’s enjoyingbto watch how she became a famous chef on tv.

  31. Ok peeps. I’m looking for a graphic novel to read. Preferably one that has come to a conclusion so I can read the whole thing. I will be reading them digitally if that makes a difference. I know there are readers in this group. Suggestions?

    • Sherriff of Baghdad
      Vision
      My Favorite Thing is Monsters
      Asterios Polyp

      And I just read the full “Paper Girls” series, which was really good. Brian K. Vaughan can do no wrong, it would seem. (No idea how they could have pulled this off as a CGI live action TV show)

      • I can’t find Sheriff of Baghdad. Do we mean Sheriff of Babylon?

        I’ve added the others to my want to read list and picked up Paper Girls. Right now, I’m doing this thing where I read a book then read a graphic novel, so I’m always on the lookout for GNs to read.

          • I’ll also recommend “My Favorite Thing Is Monsters” but there is a long overdue volume 2 that is supposed to conclude it.

            “Asterios Polyp” is good but trippy.

            A bunch of stuff I’ve been reading are still ongoing, so I won’t recommend them.

            If you don’t mind manga, “A Silent Voice” is 7 volumes and very well worth reading.

            “Sentient” by Jeff Lemire is good, as is “Sara” by Garth Ennis.

            “They Called Us Enemy” by George Takei is great. And I also loved “I Kill Giants” by Joe Kelly.

            The sex comedy “Menage a 3” by Gisele Lagace is a lot of fun, and there are 10 volumes so there’s plenty to read.

            I’ll stop here for now. 😀

          • Jack. It’s just because. I find it’s a good palate cleanser between books

            ditto: I’ve added all of them to my want to read list. Manga is actually good. If I get it in the original Japanese, it’s a good excuse to practice

          • Always happy to pass on comics, graphic novel, and manga recommendations. I still read quite a few of those. And I’m happy to take recommendations too. 😀

          • Same!

            And ditto, while you’re at it, can you please create the next ComiXology? Amazon is pretty clearly never going to restore it.

    • I’ve only read a handful of GN, I imagine you have heard of them all.

      Watchmen (duh)
      Kingdom Come
      The Killing Joke
      Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
      Y

      I’ve started reading Paper Girls. I would recommend anything by Brian K Vaughan.

    • My favorites (that are common enough they have probably been read) are:

      Locke & Key
      Chew
      Black Science
      Johnny The Homicidal Maniac (Same guy who later went on to do Invader Zim)

      • +1 for Locke & Key
        There’s also Sandman, of course, if you haven’t read it.
        I also really enjoyed Kieron Gillen’s Darth Vader series.
        And (just one more) There was an excellent recent graphic novel version of Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five.

        • I’m up to about issue 32 of Sandman, so way past the first graphic novel. I was doing a lot of current stuff that came out monthly so I wasn’t really thinking about them as graphic novels. Gillen’s vader series was one of them. Low was also really good, and Scooby Apocalypse held me for a while. I’ll have to check out the Slaughethouse Five. One of my all-time favorite books.

    • Ok, not a big GN reader but ones I’ve liked in the past are:

      Fray (set in the same universe as Buffy the Vampire slayer but in the future)

      Strong Female Protagonist, a web comic series which has been collected into two volumes. Technically not finished but the writer and artist have went on to paid jobs so I doubt it will get finished, you can still read the webcomic at:

      https://strongfemaleprotagonist.com/issue-1/page-0/

      Watchman

      Alex + Ada (Alex gets sent a sex Android by his grandma and things get complicated when Ada is hacked to free her AI) The run consisted of 15 issues but it’s been collected into one volume.

      Bandette – a very cute series about a young art thief in Paris, been collected into several volumes.

  32. You know it’s a particularly nasty custody battle when the dad gives the principal the “I know where everybody lives so let me see my kid” speech (he doesn’t)

    Hubby’s having a rough time at work right now

  33. Crap joke for the day:

    A blonde was driving home one night and got caught in a severe hailstorm. Her car was badly dented, so the next day she took it to a repair shop.

    The shop owner saw that she was a blonde, so he decided to have some fun. He told her to go home and blow into the tail pipe really hard, and all the dents would pop out.

    So the blonde went home, got down on her hands and knees & started blowing into her tailpipe. Nothing happened. She blew a little harder, and still nothing happened.

    Her blonde roommate saw her and asked, ‘What are you doing?’ The first blonde told her how the repairman had instructed her to blow into the tail pipe in order to get all the dents to pop out.

    The roommate rolled her eyes and said, “Uh, like hello!

    “You need to roll up the windows first.”

  34. OK finally…. the wedding episode was less bad, and the one after that with Man-Bull was actually quite good.

    The episode was about much more than Man-Bull, but that’s a non-spoiler way to reference it.

    • This particular story line “grumpy old person needs re-socializing by younger person(s)” has been done a zillion times.

      So I think this is the sort of film you go to see for a particular actors performance.
      Kind of like seeing a remake of an Agatha Christie tale because of the new films cast.

  35. Tolkien narrating the ride of the Rohirrim against the orcs at Pelenor

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWxnHuVEwUg

    I found this in the comments utterly fascinating:
    There’s an interesting fact about this recorded narration.

    Tolkien made it before The Lord of the Rings had found a publisher. He was rather disillusioned, even despairing about its prospects, and had lost faith in his ability as a writer. He was visiting the house of a friend (I can’t recall who), and this friend had bought a fairly newfangled device: a tape recorder.

    After mucking about with it a bit, recording The Lord’s Prayer (to exorcise any evil spirits in it, for Tolkien was a bit suspicious of new tech), his friend suggested that he record his favourite passage from his new book. Tolkien did so, and on replaying it, the friend said, ‘Surely you know that’s really good?’ Tolkien said, ‘Yes… This machine has made me believe in it again.’

    It’s a sobering reminder that even the very greatest are plagued by self-doubt.

  36. Crap joke for the evening:

    A weary traveler knocks on a farmer’s door late one night and the farmer opens the door. The traveler asks if he can sleep in the barn as he is wet, hungry & tired. The farmer welcomes him in and feeds him and lets him sleep in the spare bedroom overnight. In the morning the traveler offers to a days work for free, to repay the farmer. The farmer refuses the offer and says it is not necessary. The traveler says he is an animal whisperer, so the farmer agrees. Three hours later the traveler returns and explains what he had heard. I spoke to your horse and he says you have changed his bit from a round on to a triangular one and it hurts. OK, I will change the bit says the farmer. I spoke to your cows and they don’t like the automatic milking machine, it hurts. O.K I will return to hand milking says the farmer. The traveler then says he spoke to the sheep but the farmer quickly interrupts the traveler and says” Stop” they are ALL f’king liars!

  37. It’s a shame that it took this long to give Jodie material to shine. But this was a good send of for her doctor. And a bit of a surprise at the end, though I had seen something a while ago that let me know this was happening.

  38. So after Gregory House fakes his own death and spends the remaining months with his terminal best friend, Wilson, he forges a new identity as a psychologist in San Francisco. Or at least that is what I tell myself when watching the Hulu series, “Chance.”

  39. So watching the first two episodes of the Guillermo del Toro’s CABINET OF CURIOSITIES.

    Reminds me of the horror anthology films that were popular in the 60s and 70s.

    The second story is based on a Henry Kuttner short story..FFS could he not come with a story from a more modern writer!

  40. So watching the first two episodes of the Guillermo del Toro’s CABINET OF CURIOSITIES.

    Reminds me of the horror anthology films that were popular in the 60s and 70s.

    The second story is based on a Henry Kuttner short story..FFS could he not come with a story from a more modern writer!

    I mean I like Henry Kuttner short stories but for a show in 2022 it’s taking the piss.

  41. Ten years ago Rhettro said: “Windows 8 isn’t wowing me over its feature set, but given its relative cheap upgrade cost ($40) I will at least upgrade one of my two XP machines. The 64bit version of Windows 7 is doing fine on my laptop and I don’t plan on upgrading it.”

    Narrator voice: “He never did buy Windows 8 and instead held out for a free copy of Windows 10.”

  42. Snow tires on the husband’s car this morning. Yesterday they messed up and brought out the wrong tires. Had to wait while they got the right tires from their storage facility. On the upside, at least I know for sure the right tires are there

    • As a newish rider, I don’t really care if you wear a helmet or not. If you are aware of the risks and choose to take them and the consequences, it doesn’t affect me. I, however, will always wear a full-faced helmet and glove minimum. I know an acquaintance that had an old lady pull out in front of him and he smashed his face on her bumper (open-faced helmet). He had several years of reconstructive facial surgery. I think of that whenever the helmet feels a little hot.

  43. In other news, I received my pallet of fake mail-in voting ballets for Maricopa County. They are made of bamboo and are watermarked with an image of Deng Xiaoping. Even though I really wanted to vote for Kari Lake, I won’t get paid unless I put Hunter Biden in as a write-in for governor. Just got email confirmation my ballet was excepted.

  44. Finished Judgment on PC. Say anything you want about RGG studios, between this and the Yakuza games, they know how to tell a story. Next up, Lost Judgment.

  45. Andor is exactly what Star Wars has needed.
    So many great, memorable characters, so much tension around every one of the mains. So many nuanced details about daily life under the Empire. I find the “boring” complaint a little strange.

    It’ll be hard to accept any more Stephen J. Cannell product like Book of Boba Fett after this.

    • Rankin and Bass were a crazy talented team. Very high on my list of favorite animators. One of my latest tattoos is a wraparound at the elbow of Smaug from the Rankin/Bass version of The Hobbit.

  46. What a night!

    Halloween party at the littlest one’s Karate Dojo, where she won the “Cutest Costume” contest.

    Then off to a downtown theater for devil music with Kreator and Mercyful Fate. Not there as press, just a regular slob.

  47. Watching Paws of Fury tonight. I guess this answers the age old question of whether Blazing Saddles could be made in modern times. The answer is most definitely yes. All you have to do is 1) substitute species (e.g., dog in a world full of cats) for race and 2) use a garbage load of really obvious and lazily written jokes.

      • I didn’t see it in the theater. But if you cut out the ending, I could see it as a passable B movie. For the worst I’ve seen at the cinema it’s a toss-up between “Raw Deal” and “The Fourth Kind.”

          • Tired brain. . . . I didn’t see the Beastmaster in theaters, and I have fond memories of seeing it (Tanya Roberts) on cable.

            I meant to type The Dungeon Master, featuring Richard Moll as the villain.

          • Avatar: The Last Airbender was the worst movie I ever saw in theaters. I loved Beastmaster (and Tanya Roberts), Judge Dredd was meh at best, I saw Battlefield Earth on cable and fell asleep a few minutes in. Best nap ever. Don’t think I’ve seen Dungeon Master and can’t say as I remember anything about Alien Resurrection.

  48. Now it’s all Hallow’s Eve! Have a happy one, everyone. I hope you enjoy the day and the trick-or-treating, however you experience it.

      • For the first time in a couple of years, we are giving out candy again. Not sure what the numbers will be since we’re suppose to get snow in the next couple of hours.

        • I did a last minute decoration flurry in a surge of optimism but the early hour just past with narry a costumed toddler.
          They were our mainstay in the pre- Covid years

        • For once we predicted things just right. Gave out the last of the candy at 8:59 with a goal of shutting down at 9pm. Kids are pretty much done by 9pm in this area.

  49. Bought a new Wi-Fi Mesh Network that arrived today.

    Of course now I have to install it and get all the other Wi-Fi devices to work with it.

    Can’t be arsed tonight it will have to wait till morning.

    Oh and Tales of the Jedi on Disney+ was good.

  50. We decided to watch the remastered version of the 1979 movie Phantasm. It turns out, this was not a very good movie at all.

  51. Spent the evening out with my son’s 4H group at a community “trick or treat trail” event. Great weather and a lot of kids and families came out. So, a Happy Halloween indeed.

  52. As for the movie topic, that’s a bit of a tough one as I’ve always been pretty selective about what I put money down on to see in a theater. Pretty sure we saw The Last Airbender in the theater and it sadly did not live up to it’s potential. I remember also being pretty disappointed in Event Horizon as it went from being a pretty promising sci-fi concept to a pretty schlocky horror flick.

    Oh, god….I saw Prometheus in the theater. I had managed to forget that until you bastards triggered that repressed memory. So, thanks for that.

    • We have at least one devout Prometheus fan around here. Not me, but that probably isn’t even in my bottom 20 for worst theater movies. I paid money to go see Van Damme’s Cyborg, for chrissakes.

          • Our new neighborhood was really busy. Lots of trick-or-treaters – – including us! Leeloo pulled in a big candy haul.

            Also – – is it just our new locale, or have the Nightmare Before Christmas decorations taken over? I’ve never seen so many inflatable Jack Skellingtons.

          • We have an inflatable Jack Skellington, if that is any indication. LOL Cali is a big fan of “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, so that’s why we have it.

  53. Not only did the vampires take my blood, they gave me my flu shot too. Now chillaxing in the waiting room while the prerequisites fifteen minutes pass

  54. John Petrucci tonight! With Mike Portnoy and Dave LaRue. I’ll probably promote it in the morning.

    This is the strongest power trio working today. I wish they’d do more.

  55. Until today, I didn’t know there was a Wayne Gretzky whiskey. I was a very cheap whiskey so I picked it up and will try it tonight. Given the price, I don’t expect it to be very good, but I still need to try it

  56. It’s getting too late in the day for me to make a hockey joke that is top-shelf, so I’ll make a general whiskey comment instead. For the longest time Teresa and I have enjoyed the excellent, but mostly affordable, Canadian Whiskey “Forty Creek”. But unfortunately, we were exposed to the pricy Irish whiskey “Writer’s Tears”. It’s our favorite now.

    • Ballantine’s is a decent cheap whiskey. They also make a higher end version that’s quite good, but for a budget, their blend is nice

      • OMG!!!!
        I found another Ballentine’s fan!!!!
        I ran across this brand back in the 90’s and bought it because it was cheep and I had no money.
        In the 2000’s it suddenly got “en vogue” and became really expensive. Then because it was popular it became hard to find. Because it was hard to find people stopped buying it and by the 2010s the price of it dropped back down… If you could find it!
        Now it is reasonable but I have not been able to find any in a year!

        It’s a cheep scotch but I like what I like and I am tickled to find some one else who likes it!

        • You can’t find Ballentine’s Joe? Here, the cheap stuff is in every liquor store. The higher end 17 year old can only be found in one place in Airdrie, but the other is pretty much everywhere.

          • I still struggle with this stuff. I have a giant Costco jug of Crown – – I have occasionally tapped into it, but have never found a way to make it enjoyable.

      • Van, price depends upon what you’re looking at. The inexpensive Ballentine’s I mentioned is only about $30 CDN. The 17 year old is closer to $100. We very rarely have the expensive one. The Wayne Gretzky bottle was also on sale for about $30. Unfortunately, it tasted like a $30 CDN whiskey. It’s ok, but, as I said, is a bit harsh.
        Since the two of us only buy a bottle on the weekends and are dry during the week, we’re ok with $30. Every now and then though, we splurge and go for something higher end.

  57. Visited two distilleries in Orkney when I was travelling with a friend. On one of the tours the guide came up-to me and asked if I liked whisky and was bemused when I said no, but I can force it down at a pinch.

    Felt like an atheist in a church..

    • I felt much the same way when my wife and I toured Scotland a few years ago. I avoided all the whisky places. Unfortunately, I found out literally on my way out of the country (in the Edinburgh airport duty free shop) that Gin has actually been on a huge rise in Scotland and I could have been sampling Gin at nearly all those whisky places I avoided. Maybe next time.

  58. Here is another thing I will add on this topic…
    I like Bourbon but I can’t drink it because it gives me a headache. Sometimes the headache will start before I’ve even finished the whole glass! A friend of mine, hearing the story, ask if I had ever tried rye. I hadn’t but since then I have and for some weird reason I can drink rye but not straight bourbon.
    Go figure.

    • I’ve had some similar problems with Bourbon for some reason. Have you tried Templeton Rye? It isn’t as sweet as other ryes and is a nice in-betwen rye and bourbon.

  59. Anyone up on the latest laptops? I’m trying to figure out the right balance between performance and price. I see massive performing systems like the MSI GF65. But, as a gaming machine, these do things like get really hot and may be much more than I really need. I don’t really do PC gaming, but if I want to pair my Quest 2 with a laptops I have to have a reasonable graphics card present. I don’t need powerhouse memory and processor speed, but if I cheap out on these things, then doing things that I’m want to do (such as have 20+ tabs open at a time in Chrome) will rapidly overwhelm my system. Any thoughts on whether I really need 12th gen i7 hex processor with 128GB or RAM or if I’m just throwing my money away at that point. I’m actually doing pretty well right now with my older Asus touchscreen with 8th gen i7 quad core and 16 gb RAM. But when I get a new system I don’t want to find myself getting stuck as new tech comes out.

  60. 128GB is overkill, if I were buying new I’d go for 64. For VR, graphics memory is more important. I don’t what is common for laptops these days, but 12 GB of graphics memory would be fairly future-proof, although I’d imagine 8 would be more available. CPU-wise, a fairly current i7 would work well. Current-gen AMD processors have been getting a lot of buzz for their power-to-price ratio.

    • Good to know about AMD. Back when I was paying attention to such things, they weren’t something you would want in a descent system. For me, the challenge has been finding the drive space that I need. I have a 2TB drive and it’s pretty full now. I’ve gone the route of the small SSD with a large alternative drive. It can be OK, but makes things like iTunes a massive pain when it simply can’t figure out what to do when your music isn’t where it expects it to be.

  61. Hubby is principal of a k-4 elementary school this year. He thought it would be nice to start a beginning chess club for the younglings. He put out notice there would be twenty spots in this club, not sure if even that would be filled. He got 72 kids asking to sign up. He’s happy there was such interest. He’s also sad because he can’t accept them all. He has no idea how he’s going to choose twenty of of all those kids

  62. FWIW
    This week I had two differrent, high ranked NASA people mention to me (in different social situations) concerns about the parallels between Howard Hughs and Elon Musk.
    Amoungst themselves there is growing concern at administration level, about Elon going off the rails and what that would mean to the space program, given how many of their eggs are currently in his basket.

  63. Busy weekend of activities.
    The Scottsdale waterfront’s high-tech art convergence was basically Cyberpunk, just without the embedded fingernail blades. Pics will surely be posted.

  64. Has anybody here tried Mastodon? I have a few friends who have moved over to that from twitter but, since I’m not really a twitter person, I haven’t decided what to do. Also, I’m not sure what “server” I should be on. I’m assuming mastodon.world, being a generic one but…

  65. My credit card came up for renewal. Now I have the exhausting task of going through and updating everything that comes off it. I’m already tired

    • I saw this mentioned in an article once as a great time to cul out those monthly subscriptions that you really aren’t using.

      It is especially useful with those companies that make it really difficult to cancel your subscription. Since they only have the old credit card number.

  66. Here’s a thing I just discovered.

    I saw that this 1st round of student loan forgiveness involved 16 million people. So I did some research and the Median student monthly loan payment is $222
    Doing the math shows that the forgiveness of 16 million loans could put 3.5 BILLION dollars back into the economy
    … EVERY MONTH!!!!

    That extra “discretionary income” has got to be good for local small businesses.

  67. We’re going out for our fourth Covid shot today. It’s currently -17C (-25 with wind chill). I really don’t want to go outside

  68. So according to twitter scuttlebutt, the Disney money for Doctor Who will mean the first season with the new Doctor with haves a budget of 10 million pounds per episode.

    I fear the thing that will finally finish off DW is Disney funding.

  69. Today is shaping up to be an historic day. For all the worst reasons. Let’s hope
    – – the early polls were inaccurate
    – – for no violence

    I don’t plan to track anything. My vote was mailed 2 weeks ago.

    • I will be voting a little later today but I won’t be following it either. With all of the pre-voting, I suspect it will be a day or maybe more before everything is counted.

      I am not optimistic for Democracy.
      I am afraid that the fix is already in. Too many authoritarians have been appointed to the positions that accept the votes and to the courts that will hear their lawsuits.

  70. Rewatching Werewolf by Night and noticing the little flickering rings that were used in the old days to indicate to the projectionist to change the reel.

  71. We’ve completed episode 3 of Rings of Power. I have gripes, but overall, I’m enjoying it.

    As a lifelong Tolkien fan but never a scholar, so I can’t call out any deviations from the Silmarillion. And I think we knew from the start that differences were to be expected? These are variations on the legends?

  72. I’ve been doing a full catalog listen of all 16 Iron Maiden studio albums, in chronological order of release. On day 6, with only one album left to go. Not as a journalist, just as a fan, so I’m not taking notes or shutting out everything else to focus on the music.

    It’s kinda tiring, but fun. I will definitely do this again with other artists. I recommend it! Pick an artist with a fairly extensive discography and go!

    • I’m currently halfway through Powerslave, so lots to go. I’ll share some thoughts once completed. I would recommend listening to Bruce Dickinson’s “Accent of Birth” and “Chemical Wedding” and then immediately follow with Blaze Bayley’s “Silicon Messiah,” once you are done with the Maiden studio albums.

      • Okay, I lied. I have a few comments. There is no denying the musical talent of Maiden, but I did notice the improvement in timing and precision by the fourth studio album. As great as the first two albums are, the songs sound better live after 30 years of practice.

        • That is a really good point. They’re absolutely a tighter, more mature songwriting and performing unit by the time the mid-80s rolled around.

          The solo albums are another rabbit hole! There’s hours and hours of stuff from Bruce, Paul Di’Anno, Blaze, Adrian Smith, and even Steve Harris’s side project, British Lion. That could be a great future adventure, though.

          • You’re right, I will need to march through those other albums eventually. In regards to the Maiden journey, I think the two solo Bruce albums show what he wanted to do and couldn’t at that stage in Maiden. Likewise, there was the critique that Blaze didn’t get his chance to really shine in Maiden because the songs weren’t written for his vocal range. If you listen to “Silicon Messiah” I think you would find there is some merit in that notion.

          • Yeah, I like the idea of checking out Blaze Bayley’s solo albums. He’s a capable vocalist, but was unable to do much with the material on X-Factor or Virtual XI. I blame the lackluster songwriting, not him.

            How well do you know those 90s Maiden albums?

          • I think I got Virtual XI and Accident of Birth through the Columbia tape club. LOL Accident got a lot more play. There’s a gap between 7th Son and Brave New World which I look forward to revisiting.

  73. Gave my little one a few new-to-her choices for movie night and she chose Pinocchio. I was going to go with the 2022 version, but it got pretty universally panned by IMDB reviewers, so we watched the original. We should have watched the new one.
    I haven’t seen this since I was a really young kid. I guess it’s fine for what it is, but I think the newer one would have resonated better. Eh, she liked it, so I guess that’s what matters.

  74. Recently watched Netflix films-
    Tom Cruise ScFi “Oblivion”
    Nothing “award winning” here, just a solid sci-fi/action adventure film.
    Biggest Suprise was that it is nearly 10 years old and I’d never heard of it.
    https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=oblivion+movie&fr=iphone&.tsrc=apple

    “Uncharted”
    National Treasure or Raiders type film. Fun but had that sort of “low budget, trying to seem big budget, made for a streaming service” kind of feel to it.
    Even the actors seemed to be kind of board with the material.
    Oblivion was the more engaging of the two.
    https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=uncharted+movie&fr=iphone&.tsrc=apple

  75. Gallagher was kind of an ass, but he’s gone today too. No one of our generation can say they didn’t find laughs in his routine. RIP, I guess.

    I wonder they’ll hand out mallets if he has an open casket service?

    • I had not heard of him until I saw a death announcement on twitter.

      He sounded quite bitter about his career path back in 2011 when he was interviewed by Marc Maron (who rereleased the interview after the guys death).

    • Of all our Paloozas, I have the fondest recollection of this one. And I truly loved this movie. For all of its 1970s silliness, it does truly have some depth and some unforgettable scenes. And it’s so f’fing weird.

  76. Taking a personal day tomorrow, was going to take my daughter to the science center in downtown Phoenix. It’s many blocks away from the state capital, but it seems like I should still keep an eye on the news to see how insane the armed protesters have gotten. I’m told they’re already down there, because all of the major political races went to the Democratic candidates, and the big one – – the governor race – – is about to be called for the Democrat.

    I’m sure it will be safe to go downtown tomorrow. It’s just sad that I have to keep this in the back of my mind. Fun times we live in.

    • Dear Pheonix Chamber of Commerce,

      You have a domestic terrorist problem. You should consider lobbying your state legislature to pass laws to fix this.

      Sincerely,
      Consumer Discretionary Spending

      • Response from Phoenix Chamber of Commerce:

        Are they white dudes in oversized pickup trucks? It’s fine. Move along.

        The announcement came tonight about the AZ governor. Hobbs wins! Naturally, her she-trump opponent is refusing to concede. I hope sanity prevails.

  77. So there is a new Western series starring Emily Blunt called The English. It’s on Amazon Prime in the US.

    Anyway it’s rather good, in an arty kind of way and some of the scenery is beautifully shot.

  78. So do the Americans thirsting for WW3 after an accidental missile strike in Poland realise that Russia still has a lot of ICBMs that can fucking wreck the USA and the rest of the world?

    Asking for a friend.

    I’ll be in the corner singing “We’ll all go together when we go..”

  79. I tried to order XMAS gifts from Teepublic last night, and my card kept getting declined. I contacted support and they told me it wasn’t their fault, to contact my bank.

    I tried ordering stuff from a different vendor and it worked. I guess I won’t bother with Teepublic anymore.

  80. I’m up to Brave New World on the Maiden play-through. I’ll admit that this is the last album I’m really looking forward to hearing again. I know there are good songs after BNW, but in my opinion, they get fewer and farther between from this point on. But, I’m hoping to be wrong.

    • I’ll share my BNW thoughts when you’re done. I have ’em.

      And for the rest of the way. It’s awesome that you went on this journey with me!

  81. According to Canada Post, I will be able to pick up a certain birthday gift today.
    Thanks to the Mangans for helping me with this.

  82. If not for the cat alarm clock, I’d probably have slept until Sunday. The iPhone did a surprise update overnight. I also seem to have lost some texts this morning, so I hope no one sent anything super important.

  83. In other news, I recalled Spongebob Squarepants as being over-the-top silliness, but creative and fun wackiness, kind of like a less nihilistic version of Ren & Stimpy. So I fired up episode 1 from season 1. . . this was way more mediocre than I remembered. Just dumb, silly noise. Which can be fine – – I don’t need kids entertainment written by Neal Stephenson – – but at least make us laugh with it. I felt like everyone was slightly less smart after 10 minutes.

    I’ve seen a fair bit of Spongebob over the years. I remember some funny stuff. I think it may have gotten better in later seasons, but now I question that.

  84. [b]I’m still around! Taking Secret Santa signups now![/b]

    Vanamonde was kind enough to reach out to me via Twitter DM to remind me about the annual Deadpan Secret Santa Gift Exchange. The answer is YES! It will be my pleasure to host and arrange for Secret Santas again.

    This year, I will ONLY be accepting signups via this comments page or my email (amybowenwrites AT gmaildotcom). Last week, some jerk hijacked my Facebook account and promptly got it locked. I’m planning on waiting until after the 30-day deletion period for locked accounts and starting over with a new account that will be a blank slate. It was a little upsetting at first, but I don’t mind having one fewer source of push notifications.

    [b]Deadline for signups is 12:00 PM CST next Friday, Nov. 25.[/b] I will randomize names and send out assignments sometime that afternoon.

    Van or Ryah, feel free to repost this to the Facebook group if you like.

    Deadpan is the way.

  85. “We’ve got a billion dollars to spend! IDK, throw in 25 main characters, I guess.”

    Email between Rings of Power Executive Producers, probably

    • I feel like I had heard, when they were first talking about the series, that they were going to specifically target a realm that wasn’t covered by the books so that they didn’t have to worry about breaking cannon. I guess that email turning into but we need to have names that only the people who read the Silmarillion will know, and we have to change everything about them.

  86. We’ve been watching the Russian Sci-Fi series “Better then us” on Netflix.
    No spoiler to say it is a “not to distant future” story where society deals with ever more capable/human-like robots.

    I think the story is pretty good. The bots are well done (I think a mix of CGI and actors in heavy makeup).
    The dialogue seems a bit clumsy and amature but I am willing to pass that off as a “translation problem”.
    Not the best thing out there but is entertaining.

  87. Greg Bear is apparently on his final days. He’s one of the last of his generation of top-tier grandmaster Science Fiction novelists.

    I’ve only ever read “Eon” of his. I remember finding it dry, but staggeringly intelligent. Only a genius-level scientist could have written it. Parts of the story stuck with me over the decades, which is more than I can say for many books.

    Here’s hoping his final days are full of peace and comfort and contented reflection.

  88. Setting up a new iPhone is pretty painless if you have another iOS device and Apple giving you temporary storage to back up your old iPhone to iCloud.

      • I left it on. But I might look for a way to get notifications to only show up for a few seconds. Tired of seeing the email that I don’t want to respond to yet for hours at a time every time I look at my phone.

      • Ticketmaster shouldn’t be legal in the first place. If I can get arrested for scalping tickets in front of a venue, I should definitely be arrested for creating and implementing a platform that allows that practice on a large scale.

  89. Crap joke for the day:

    Two prawns were swimming around, one called Justin and the other called Christian.

    The prawns were constantly being harassed and threatened by bigger fish that inhabited the area.

    Finally one day Justin said to Christian, ‘I’m fed up with being a prawn; I wish I was a shark, and then I wouldn’t have any worries about being eaten.’

    A large mysterious cod appeared and said, ‘Your wish is granted’

    Lo and behold, Justin turned into a shark.

    Horrified, Christian immediately swam away, afraid of being eaten by his old mate.

    Time passed (as it does) and Justin found life as a shark boring and lonely.

    All his old mates simply swam away whenever he came close to them.

    Justin began to realise that his new menacing appearance was the cause of his sad plight.

    While swimming alone one day he saw the mysterious cod again and he thought perhaps the mysterious fish could change him back into a prawn.

    He approached the cod and begged to be changed back, and, lo and behold, he found himself turned back into a prawn.

    With tears of joy in his tiny little eyes Justin swam back to his friends and bought them all a cocktail.

    Looking around the gathering at the reef he realised he couldn’t see his old pal.

    ‘Where’s Christian?’ he asked.

    ‘He’s at home, still distraught that his best friend changed sides to the enemy and became a shark’, came the reply.

    Eager to put things right again and end the mutual pain and torture, he set off to Christian’s abode.

    As he opened the coral gate, memories came flooding back.

    He banged on the door and shouted, ‘It’s me, Justin, your old friend, come out and see me again.’

    Christian replied, ‘No way man, you’ll eat me. You’re now a shark, the enemy, and I’ll not be tricked into being your dinner.’

    Justin cried back ‘No, I’m not. That was the old me.
    ‘I’ve found Cod….

    I’m a Prawn again Christian’

    • I’m staying with extended family for Thanksgiving. One portion of the family have traveled to watch the world cup live several times and are big USA fans. Another portion is from The Netherlands so were really into the game just before that. I went out to breweries to get away from it… guess what was on every television at both breweries I went to. Thankfully, I’m good at ignoring things in the background like that.

  90. Morning Pan
    Yesterday I tried an experiment and didn’t go on mobile devises at all. I discovered, while doable, I use my tablet and phone for an awful lot. From reading books and the news, to game guides, to checking my mail when I’m away from my computer. It was not an easy task.

    • I’d love to do something like this. If I did, though, I’d make an exception for reading. About 95% of my reading is now on my tablet and phone.

      • All my reading is digital. However, I did cheat a little and read on the computer yesterday. Not as comfortable but it still worked.

        • I did try going back to analog for music but missed the convenience and the lack of skips and not having to replace the needle from time to time.

  91. I hate having really nice friends that push you into doing stuff so they can promote you.
    Apparently I’m setting up a webpage now. And maybe a FB business page if I can figure out what category I fit into.

  92. On my FB feed, there was a meme about people missing programming their VCRs to record tv programmes.

    Fuck that bullshit, Videoplus was a revelation before DVDs and streaming made them
    Obsolete.

    • Jeezzzus. Father of the frickin year. Gross.

      I cant handle this type of news. Im so sad for the five lives lost and so many more who have been trwumatized.

      That dad is gross and dumb and what a loser.

    • I read a roundup of the most recent (2022 study results) research on all of the things Covid is doing to the body.

      Bottom line is that you don’t want to get it and you DEFINITELY don’t want to get it multiple times. Which becomes difficult because it attacks your T cells making you more susceptible to getting the new strains.

      Reguardless of how severe your external symptoms are when you actively have it, it is going after you internally. It attacks your lungs, your heart, the lining of your brain and your immune system.

      Get vaxed. Wear a mask. Try to avoid crowded, bad airflow situations.

      Says the guy who has to take a cross country air flight tomorrow.

  93. I went to the local candy store. They have what they say is the world’s hottest gummie bear. I was too afraid to actually get it.

  94. Watched most of The Guardians of the Galaxy Xmas special. Bit cringy in places and it needed more Rocket and Cosmo sniping at each other.

  95. I’ve come to like James Fell a bit, but I think he’s missed the point with his FB screed against the Feed the World song.

    I won’t paste the whole rant, it I’m sure you can guess his criticisms. Sure, many things were mishandled with the funds raised and the obviously corrupt Ethiopian dictator, but to say that it’s just arrogant rich white people “explaining starvation to Ethiopians” is cynical, even for me. I think their hearts were in the right place, and they informed and instilled some empathy in millions of Westerners. I also don’t think Bob Geldof would have denied the awful Colonialist history that contributed to African suffering. That kind of thing is more publicly-acknowledged today than it was in 1984, it’s a completely unfair, besides-the-point argument. And really, “Feed the World” is never a poor message.

    • I agree that “Feed the World” is never a poor message, but as I’ve grown older the lyrics to that song have become more and more problematic to me. They are shockingly bad and tone deaf. I haven’t read Fell’s screed, and I’m not sure if I agree with any of his points, but I have trouble listening to this song anymore because of its ignorant lyrics. Yes, it was a product of its times, but even then I think the lyrics could have been written in a much better way. This song has not aged well, imo.

    • I never cared for the song because to me it was just awful music.
      I was proud though that a lot my generation’s pop charactures were attempting to get young people to make a positive difference in a world problem that polititions were mostly ignoring.
      I feel like that is where some of the negativity comes from. The right can’t stand it when “entertainers” point out a problem, much less when they try to do something about it.

  96. About ready to send out Secret Santa assignments. Bunny or Van, is there anyone who responded on the FB page that I do NOT have on this list yet? As of right now, here is the list of people who have signed up this year (not randomized yet):

    Amy Bowen
    Ditto
    Jack Mangan
    Tiffany Mangan
    Vanamonde
    The Energizer Bunny
    The Roaming Asshat

  97. The rare event: Mangan grownups go out. We saw Wakanda Forever. In a theater!

    Unquestionably a good movie. In many ways better than the first, but I still think I prefer BP.
    WF could absolutely have been shorter.

  98. I’m looking to update my standup comedy listening. I have plenty of the ancient ones (George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Bob Newhart, Lily Tomlin, Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams, etc.) and plenty that are approaching newer (as in might have something current floating around) such as Eddie Izzard, Dave Chappelle, Patton Oswalt, Jim Gaffigan, Ron White, etc.). The newest one I’ve heard lately are John Mullaney and some guy my son made me watch that seems to have a problem with wearing shirts (Bert Kreisher maybe). Who are the new ones that I should be checking out? Especially interested in audio formats as I have time to listen more than watch.

      • I was exposed to Paul F Tompkins through the Thrilling Adventure Hour podcast. I did see his “Driven to Drink” stand up special which had a unique twist to a stand up format. I should definitely check out more Chris Hardwick. I am aware of Ron Funches from appearances everywhere, but have yet to check out his stuff. The rest I’ll have to discover. Thanks!

      • I watched a Whitney Cummings special and it was tedious bordering on offensive. She did this whole monologue about kids being soft these days and if I had been in the audience I would have heckled her.

        Things improve only mirin’s want to rewind the clock to the ‘good old days’.

    • That’s a pretty good list!

      Stephen Wright?
      I’ve seen Brian Regan live a few times. His earliest material is his best – – but he’s still one of the greats, IMHO.
      I also absolutely loved Mitch Hedberg. Such a great mix of stoner and clever comedy. RIP.
      Bill Burr is about 30% douchebag, 70% funny.

      If Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” is still on, then that could be a good resource too. I don’t know comedians the way I used to.

      • I will say: I recall Leann psyching me up to watch some “hilarious” Dane Cook comedy special. . .

        I didn’t laugh once in 2 hours. I couldn’t believe this guy had packed an arena full of people.

        • Dane Cook is another one I’ve seen everywhere, but never performing. He seems really well respected amongst the MST3K producers.

      • Stephen Wright is an all-time favorite of mine. I’ve heard of Brian Regan but not seen his stuff. I should check out Comedians in Cars. I keep hearing great things about it.

    • So I never thought CT was funny either.
      Recently though, I saw him open for Weird Al and it was a delightfully weird time. My college age child was with me and had never heard of him and absolutely loved it.
      That being said … I think once every few decades would be more than enough of his act.

    • There are certain comedians that I didn’t find funny at the time, but that show up and do awesome work in other mediums. I couldn’t take Emo Phillips at all when he was a comic, but his work with Home Movies and Weird Al has always been top notch. I couldn’t stand Andrew Dice Clay, but he was great in Amazon Women on the Moon.

    • I thought Andrew Dice Clay was a hilarious comedian back when I was a young idiot, i.e.: his target audience.

      I saw Emo Philips as the opening act for Weird Al in 2018, and he was hilarious. My daughter did not share this opinion of him.

  99. So long to Albert Pyun. No, I wasn’t familiar with his name at first either. But the list of movies he made definitely is worth mentioning. The Sword and the Sorcerer, Radioactive Dreams, Vicious Lips, Alien from L.A., Cyborg, Captain America, Kickboxer 2: The Road Back, Dollman, Nemesis, Spitfire, Heatseeker, Mean Guns, Postmortem, and Sorcerers.

    I especially liked Vicious Lips because it introduced me to Sue Saad and the Next. Awesome 80s music that.

    https://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3741704/beloved-genre-filmmaker-albert-pyun-has-passed-away-at-69/

    • I saw a few tributes to him yesterday. Man, “Alien from LA” is so terrible. One of my favorite MST3K episodes.

      And I have fond memories of seeing Cyborg in the theater, terrible as it is.

      • The article really neglects that Sears’ demise was largely self-inflicted. In the 70s & 80s, Sears was making a lot of money off financial services that they offered. They had founded Allstate, and created the Discover credit card, among other holdings. But the board couldn’t get past their belief that they were *only* a retail company. So, they sold off everything else to prop up the company as they faced stiff competition, in particular from Walmart. No surprise with such stellar management that the company could not adapt to a new marketplace.

      • Eddie Lampert has got to be one of this decades biggest criminals. While Sears certainly hadn’t done itself any favors in trying to figure out how to compete with Walmart and then Amazon, Lampert’s take over is a master class in how to get away with the murder of an American icon.

    • I can remember spending hours pouring over the Sears Christmas catalogue hen it arrived.
      Studying the toy section as though it were some ancient text that told where all the treasures of the world were located.
      Googling “toys” just doesn’t have the same visceral excitement.

      • We spent every pre-christmas going through the Sears catalog, painstakingly marking each and every item we wanted and making sure it was clear who should get what. Although Christmases were great and I typically loved what I got. I can’t say I ever remember getting anything that I actually marked in that catalog.

  100. Took the dog and the wee one for a walk last night. Fortunately, I spotted the coyote before we got too close. We turned right back around.
    Tiffany said it followed us, but I didn’t make the turn into our neighborhood.

    I’ve lived here 19 years, but I will never get used to living here.

  101. Your crap joke for the day:

    A blond went up to a police officer on the street and said, “Officer, I locked my keys in my car over there! Can you help me?”

    The officer said, “How good is your vision?”

    The blond said, “I have 20/20 vision. But what’s that got to do with unlocking my car?”

    The officer said, “Well, I can see from here that your windows are rolled down!”

  102. So finished the heist arc from Andor rewatch, even though I knows what was going to happen it’a was great watching the character interactions.

    Anyway, my AppleTV will blow out my Sonos Arc at some point when watching a tv episode or film with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. There is a loud pop and the sound bar stops playing sound for a couple of minutes. It’s one of those problems that has been going for years that Apple and/or Sonos never fix.

    • I have reached the point where I no longer dream of the jet packs or flying cars… I just want existing technology to work as advertised right out of the box and then not need constant “upgrading” to continue working.

  103. Finished my Iron Maiden studio album listen, that was a lot of music. Some thoughts:

    I’ve come to the conclusion that there aren’t any “bad” albums from Iron Maiden where Bruce Dickinson is the singer. I remember growing tired of “Dance of Death” but on a fresh listen, it is actually, pretty okay. I have to amend my earlier statement about “Brave New World” being the last great album, “A Matter of Life and Death” is as good or better, I was pleasantly surprised to find out. Also, on listening to the remastered Ultra HD (thanks Amazon) version of “Seventh Son” it has risen from the “good” category to “exceptional” in my opinion. “Powerslave” is still my favorite album. It opens with back-to-back classics, “Aces High” and “2 Minutes to Midnight”. “Piece of Mind” is a close second but losses out on the quality of its single filler song “Quest for Fire” to “Powerslave’s” filler song “Back in the Village”. I liked “Fear of the Dark” and “No Prayer for the Dying” more than expected. I noticed they had a quality of Bruce’s early solo albums. The early Paul Di’Anno albums are quite good if a little unpolished. By contrast, the Blaze Bayley albums are way worse than I remembered, he was singing off key on a lot of songs. I never need to listen to “X Factor” or “Virtual XI” again. However, I am going to give Blaze Bayley’s solo album “Silicon Messiah” another listen as I remember it being good.

    • Great analysis! I’m thrilled that you took this journey with me. It’s tough to summarize such a massive project in one comment, but you did it really well.

      Those 2 Paul Di’Anno Iron Maiden albums are precious to me. “Killers” is my 2nd fave of theirs.
      Agreed that “Powerslave” is the best, although I’d call “The Duellists” the throwaway.
      This album is just everything.
      Yes, “Seventh Son” is truly great.
      I thought Blaze was OK on his 2 albums, I just felt like the songwriting was bland. “The Clansman” is the only song I’ll ever choose to play from either of these. I do think I’ll check out the Blaze solo albums at some point.
      Interesting that you loved “A Matter of Life and Death!” I was pretty bored with it.
      I know everyone loves “Brave New World,” but I just can’t get into it. Beyond “Wicker Man,” it just doesn’t do much for me.

      • Thanks for the feedback. All your points have merit. “Killers” is a great album and I look forward to listening to it again. For me, the strength of the song “Brighter than a Thousand Suns” elevates “A Matter of Life and Death” as a whole. The challenge for Maiden is writing a catchy tune without stealing from their past work. Post “Seventh Son”, many songs made me think of the “Pure Mood” albums, LOL.

  104. Apparently, the new Willow revival is a series. And apparently, the first 2 episodes are out today.

    Not really on my radar. . . But maybe if I ever clear out my show queue.

  105. Inspired by the latest Geologic Podcast, how much do you pay in North America for you internet/to package?

    Cos even taking currency exchange rate into account, sounds like you are really getting screwed on those packages.

  106. Inspired by the latest Geologic Podcast, how much do you pay in North America for you internet/tv package?

    Cos even taking currency exchange rate into account, sounds like you are really getting screwed on those packages.

    • Is there an echo in here? I think we are charged somewhere between 50 and 60 dollars for our superduper fast internet, but Teresa uses it for her job and her employer pays for it. We recently ditched DirecTV and have an antennia now for local television.

  107. So I did give Blaze Bayley’s album “Silicon Messiah” a fresh listen, this was the album he made immediately after being let go of Iron Maiden. It is quite good. The more thrash bent works well with his voice. I think the band could have done more to support him. I’ve started the Bruce solo album “Accident of Birth,” which is the one he worked on when he left Maiden in the mid-90’s. Man, I love it. If it were an IM album, it would rank between “Piece of Mind” and “Somewhere in Time”.

  108. Deadpan Secret Santa assignments have finally been emailed out. Sorry for the delay. I was busy scrambling to finish NaNoWriMo 2022 in the last five days of the month, and I made it with about half an hour to spare on Wednesday night! 🙂

  109. Dear Secret Santa gift receiver:
    While I ordered your gift today, it may or may not get to you by Christmas. I also was not able to use “gift options” so please know it came from me and ignore any paperwork (invoices) that may end up in the box as I couldn’t get it removed.

    Thank you
    Your Secret Santa

    (Also, why could I get the item shipped here to Canada by mid-month but it says three weeks to ship to US?)

  110. Trying again with Joni Mitchell – Blue. It’s considered one of the greats of the folk rock genre.

    I like her guitar-playing, but I’m put-off a bit by the way she sings. And the songs are fine, but nothing here has really grabbed me. The lyrics also don’t connect. I acknowledge this as powerful stuff, just maybe not for me.

    I want to love this, but it just doesn’t hook me like the best of Bob Dylan, Carole King, Joan Baez, John Denver, and some Cat Stevens did. Or even Mitchell’s work with Jaco Pastorius.

  111. Even though our relationship can be describes as tumultuous at best, I still need to give my mother (virtual) hugs. She contacted me today, her mother, my grandmother, is no longer eating or moving and is expected to pass within the next few days. Her partner (whom I’ve never actually met in person yet), has stomach and bladder cancer and is not expected to live more than a few months.
    She’s having a rough time right now.

    • I had to watch a few “the ending of The Peripheral explained” videos to make sure what I though happened is what happened….which for the most part is what happened.

      Enjoyed it overall and also hope we get a 2nd season.

  112. More musical reactions:

    This evening I’ve listened to the 2022 Muse album, then a bit later, their 2nd, which was released in 2001. Wow, how fame erodes. They have really gone Hollywood.

    • Seems like female Krampus works much like female Hulk. Just add green color for the Hulk and horns or a long tongue for the Krampus and make it as sexy as possible.

  113. OK, yes, that Peripheral finale makes my head hurt a little. Still greatly enjoyed this season.

    This will be the most frustrating Cliff-hanger of all time, if it isn’t picked up for another season.

  114. A mysterious yet extremely well selected board game showed up in the mail yesterday. I’m assuming it was my dpss gift. Thank you much!

  115. Been reading a book by Mr. Smarmysmarm (not actual name). He’s super popular. People really love his debut novel, but I was just ok with it. Never had any desire to continue the series.
    My in-person interactions with him were mostly fine, but his ego was a little off-putting. So I started his latest because I was intrigued by the premise and wanted to give him another shot.
    It’s pretty good! But man, I hate the forced humor and the not-funny-at-all wisecracking nerdy jokester protagonist. That gets tiresome really fast. I don’t know why this is a thing in Sci-Fi. Otherwise, it’s a page turner. The first two action sequences have been a blast.

    • The last of the original Sesame Street players? There’s someone who could look back and be proud of all the good they did with their life. RIP.

    • My condolences. Even when it’s expected, it’s never easy.

      You comment does remind me of an uncomfortable truth that I learned many years ago. About 15 years ago, one of my wife’s cousin’s passed in what was probably his late 40’s in a horse riding accident. We’re close to that branch of the family and went to the funeral. Hundreds were in attendance. I realized then that he was young enough to have many friends and family, including his parents, aunts/uncles etc that were much older than he was, but were still alive and were therefore in attendance.

      Yet, last year, my aunt passed away in her late 80’s and, due to some family issues, had managed to outlive most everyone who was close to her and knew her well. Despite having impacted at least as many people in her life as my wife’s cousin, the funeral was very small and we struggled to assemble enough people to serve as pall bearers.

  116. In concert news, it was good to catch a show with Rhett last night! Cellar Darling were the opener for Ocean Collective and Katatonia, but the best of the night, by my estimation.

  117. We just finished Rings of Power.

    I liked it a lot! So much to unpack, especially for those of us who’ve just read the books as fans, and not at a scholarly level.

    It does inspire me to revisit the Great Trilogy again. . .

          • I don’t think he’s a scholar, but he is very well versed in the lore and was able to pick out where the show diverged.
            Since the Second Age is not as well covered as the Third Age, he understood some of the things they did, but there was plenty he just found unforgivable.

            Like I said, me, not so much, I just didn’t think it was that great of a show. Very pretty, with amazing sets true, but otherwise… *shrug*

          • All good. I’m not here to argue until you change your opinion. 🙂
            I was on the fence during the early episodes, but I liked the way everything resolved.

            I do have trouble reconciling this Galadriel with the one I’ve always known from the books and movies, but maybe they’ll explain this in future seasons.

          • And the nitpickiest nitpick: Hugo Weaving was pretty memorable as Elrond. He has a big expressive face and a high forehead, while the Elrond in the show has a tiny, pinched little face.
            He was good in the role, but he looked and acted absolutely nothing like Hugo Weaving.

          • I too was put off a bit by the new Galadriel. She is not only different from the 3rd age Galadriel, but also quite different from the 1st age Galadriel that we don’t get to see much of.

            My issue with the series wasn’t so much what they changed as how slow the ramp up was. I feel like the whole season was just the prelude to the real story yet to come.

            That being said. I liked it. I just wasn’t over the top in love with it.

  118. I’d never actually seen the actual movie of Creature From the Black Lagoon. I was expecting MST3K cheese – – and sure, it’s there – – but the movie still holds up pretty well!

    I appreciate that libraries still lend out DVDs.

  119. The dimensional gates seem to get a lot of musician traffic on December 8:

    Birthdays:
    Jim Morrison (The Doors)
    Gregg Allman (Allman Brothers Band)
    Phil Collen (Def Leppard)
    Marty Friedman (Megadeth)
    Sinead O’Connor
    Corey Taylor (Slipknot/ Stone Sour)

    Deaths:
    John Lennon
    “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott (Pantera)
    Razzle (Hanoi Rocks)
    Gary Thain (Uriah Heep)

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