Earth below us
drifting, falling
floating weightless
calling, calling home
Like 99 Red Balloons, it sounds better in German.
I didn’t even realize there was a German version. I can’t say that I like either of those songs better in German. But I did have the 99 Luftballons album at the time and equally like the German and English songs on the album.
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.
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.
This could be an interesting new trend. I get the excitement of being able to still be out there while retired. Just not sure how comfortable I would be with not having final say in what my likeness was associated with.
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.
Finally watched the first Andor episode!
It’s good. All setup. I’m looking forward to seeing where all of this goes.
There’s a bit of a nip in the air this morning. It’s about time.
My friends back in the NYC area have said that this is a non-story. I do have a hard time believing that any Renfaire event would intentionally exclude anyone, but maybe I’m being naive.
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.
Alicent is clearly sucking the life force out of him…
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.
Morning Pan
I might need more sleep this morning.
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.
If it was a quote from “The Wrath of Khan” you can’t go wrong.
Sign the KHAAAAAANNNNN! …tract.
I hope you get it! Don’t hesitate to ask if you can benefit from a customer testimonial.
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.
I’m hoping Canada heats up enough to be an option in case we have to flee fascism down here.
Just as long as it doesn’t reach Arizona temperatures.
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.
I wonder if they’re constantly chasing LARPers off of the property.
There’s a non-zero chance.
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.
Argle Bargle
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.
Schrodinger’s prescriptions.
The important point is that you do in fact have prescriptions. Whether you can pick them up or not…. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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.
Is it wrong that, being a DC film, I have lowered expectations for Blac Adam?
Not to mention that it stars Dwayne Johnson.
(Does he have a GREAT movie to his name? Come at me!)
He does not make “great” films. He makes extremely fun, rewatchable films.
Dwayne Johnson gets a bad rap. He’s not Vin Diesel.
Actually, Moana WAS pretty great.
Moana is definitely his best. Well, aside from Southland Tales.
I actually have no problem with Dwayne or Vin Diesel, but neither will convince me to watch any movie.
I… dont think either is trying to convince. Either you wanna have fun at a film or you don’t.
Yes, they care very much what movies I watch!
How can you not see the brilliance that was Tooth Fairy???!!! It was, literally, the best movie ever made. There is no way that Dwayne Johnson didn’t see that right off the bat on seeing the title alone.
Well the DC track record has been pretty dismal so far, with the first WW film and Shazam being any good, so no.
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 do need to watch that Harley Quinn movie.
Thank You Lo!
I thought I was the only one. I felt the same about WW. I think it’s good for a DC movie, but that didn’t make it a good movie. It makes it an ok movie.
The 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.
And Clive Barker is 70 today!
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,
Hubbiless tonight. I guess that means life is back to normal in school since it’s back to in person parent-teacher interviews.
Go to Google.com and do a search for VELMA and see what happens.
I am pretty “meh” about this.
Eh, I think it’s a good move.
Latest She-Hulk episode was epic!
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.
Well anal bead cheat is possible even if the prototype looks rather eye watering:
They even ripping off a scene from the Battle of the Bulge…WTF.
Dolph Lungren ain’t no Robert Shaw
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).
Well late to the party, but got my bivalent covid booster today.
Getting a fine collection of little cards…
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
Huzzah for two long weekend in a row!
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
Lame! Sometimes good medical pros have terrible office staff. I’d move on too.
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
CP: Speed King — Röyksopp
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.
Jimi Hendrix in 1970. This looks and sounds incredible.
Reinforces my thought that his later-era songs were less special, but that he never lost his performing edge. Damn, he is a first stop on the Time Travel circuit.
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.
So the spinoff TV series of the movie is getting a new movie and that movie will have it’s own spinoff series. It was a descent enough movie. But I never thought it was that good.
Wait till the end for a small light at the end of the tunnel.
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…
-n +b
Sonos – the product you’ll hate to love.
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.
Gobble, gobble Deadpan!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Canucksgiving!
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.
Trying the dentist thing again today. Let’s see if it actually happens.
Fingers crossed!
Happy happy birthday Rhett!
Happy Birthday Rhett !
Happy Rhettro day!
I’d like this sickness to be done now. That’d be great.
Get up, come on, get down with the sickness Get up, come on, get down with the sickness.
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.
Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone!
Happy birthday!
Although I’ve heard of stuff he wrote I had not heard of him till today:
Ok, after finishing The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis, I will now cry BULLSHIT to the ‘different medium’ excuse for poor book adaptions.
Sure. But this has gotta be a case-by-case discussion. Some books translate to film better than others. And there have been times when filmmakers made cool innovations. The 1930s Frankenstein films, for example.
Or another example would be Blader- –
*dies of coughing fit*
If my eye balls were not attached they would have just rolled out on to the floor..
Like in Minority Report! Another PKD adaptation!
There have been plenty of great adaptations. And some that are better than the book.
One example: How To Train Your Dragon. The book is awful. Only 8 year-old boys will like it. The movie is a gem.
I’m just gonna have to put this out there – Bladerunner the movie is better than the book that inspired it.
I also like Harrison Ford’s narration version…
Ed, this is why I love you.
I am an “Ed From Texas” fan boy and damn proud of it.
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.
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!”
Saw Meshugga and In Flames Monday night. I think I lost all the hearing I have left, but it was worth it.
Saw your video and now know what hell will be like…
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.
I know the feeling. We haven’t started this nor She-Hulk. And we haven’t finished Halo or Ms. Marvel either. Haven’t watched the recent Thor movie either.
We just started this season’s “Stranger Things”.
Glad we waited. It’s a good Spooky Season view.
The Bear has dropped on Disney+ outside the USA, not sci-fi but well worth a watch.
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!
Yes, we’re hopelessly behind on our shows. That’s all right, though. We are caught up on Andor!
“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 was always kind of meh on these movies. Controversial I know
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.
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?
I enjoyed all the Dead Space games and am looking forward to the new one.
The real life inspiration behind the Netflix show, The Watcher.
Certainly Rings of Power’s most egregious offense 🙂
This is funny
I’m actually glad RoP is over. Hubby looked forward to watching it, then constantly complained about how it went off cannon. Although, to be fair, I had a lot of issues and I’m not the Tolkienfile he is.
Seriously, would hobbits (harfoots) really abandon you to certain death simply because you broke your leg?
I haven’t finished RoP yet but I’ll say I’ve been as bored with it as I have been with House of the Dragon. Nothing really happening. Then I say the title of this article today:
So season 2 is when we’re going to start ramping up now? And I thought it was bad that shows were taking 3 episodes to ramp up because people like to give a show 3 episodes to see if they like it or not.
My comment on this seemed to have got lost in moderation hell
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.
Weird Science is one of the most quotable movies ever.
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.”
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.
It got cancelled so you can just stop now if you want.
I really wanted to like the newest from Filter. I almost did.
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.
CP: Borders — MIA
Eye Dr Appt today, so my eyes are still buggin;
Just got my Covid Booster.
Here is hoping the next 24 hours aren’t as bad as after the previous booster.
Good luck!
I get my flu jab this week.
12 hours later and I’m not feeling so good.
But not nearly as bad as the last two Covid shots. Hope I can say that in the morning
I can’t.
Last night sucked. Got the high fever, shakes,chills, muscle/joint pain sometime after 1am. It had broken by 4pm though.
Today will certainly be a recovery day.
That is awful. I do hope thongs have improved! And that tomorrow is better.
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.
Still, 105, wow!
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.
Yeah, I’m sure that isn’t helping.
I hope for the best for everything through this.
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.
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.
Yet you have no problem with Deadpool doing the same. Interesting.
This is top tier D+ Marvel
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.
I was laughing pretty hard at the Madisynn/Wong banter. I’d watch a show that was just them.
CP: Forget-U-Not — 9Nine
This reminds me more of the V1 attacks on London than the kamikaze pilots mentioned in the article;
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.
I think one of the hardest parts of hubby’s job is parental custody issues.
Been on the other side of that.
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
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.
I dodged almost all of those. Some I’ve never even heard of.
At least Nothing But Trouble gave us that fantastic Digital Underground song.
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.
That’s a fun system! Is there a reason, or just because?
I’m reading far fewer comics/graphic novels these days, since Amazon wrecked Comixology.
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.
The only one I haven’t read in those is Kingdom Come so I’ve added it to the list.
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:
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.
This sickness needs to GTFO of our house now. No one is fully over it and Tiffany is down and out with it now.
Brilliance.
And also underlines how powerful that song is.
A youngster lacking knowledge of the songs origins might think it was written for the current situation in the Ukraine.
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
Uggghh. If Thanos could have modified his snap to only dust the truly horrible people, then I’d have been all for it.
Was just gonna post about this. Another damn show on my list! I recall scattered details of the book. I know it’s unhip to like anything from William Gibson after 1986, but I kinda dug it.
It’s as entertaining to watch as it probably is to drive.
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.”
It snowed over night
I need to find my snow boots
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.
For goodness sake speak English man!
Are you talking about House of the Dragon?
She=Hulk
Ugh. “Less bad”
Not usually my kind of film but Tom Hanks might pull of off:
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.
I guess we need (?) a new one of these every few years.
Finally! A version of Top Gun that I can get behind. BTW, this actually ramps up to the promised title at around 2:53.
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.
Everything about this!
Those old recordings of Tolkien are absolute treasures.
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!
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.
A lot of people on twitter moaning about being denied a kiss.
I’ve been on my own for the Jody episodes, and I can’t get motivated to watch them.
Maybe I’ll just skip to watch this one.
Same here
I feel like this picture of David Tennet is just begging to be mashed up with the portrait of Kramer from Seinfeld.
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.”
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.”
Free is good.
James Gunn is the new “Kevin Feige” of the DCEU.
This is a very good thing.
I think this is a good thing.
Is this a good thing?
There’s a DCEU?
As long as he does one more Guardians of the Galaxy movie for “the competition.”
Guardians 3 already Gunn.
I mean done.
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
I’m sure he looked cool and felt comfortable in his final moment.
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.
Speaking of GotG – the upcoming Xmas special looks absolutely wholesome and delightful
I actually enjoyed Master of Djinn and did not feel disgusted by the fat man labouring up the stairs in the Egyptian heat.
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.
Goodness know when I will get round to actually read it though.
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.
Looks interesting. I just started “Control” myself. It isn’t bad, but I was hoping for more of a F.E.A.R. experience.
Currently addicted to Vampire Survivors, a simple game that plays nicely on the Steamdeck.
Boo’s car goes in for winter tires today. Last one, then we are all ready for the season
Those wind gusts on the highway were not fun to drive in
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.
It’s a slow burn, but not boring.
It’s the opposite of boring.
To be honest it’s refreshing to have a SW show without the Jedi bullshit.
If you have a compatible DSLR you could help investigate atmospheric sprites:
Ah yes, I remember those. I grew up in a town neighboring Linden, NJ, which was a target, due to its numerous refineries and factories. Gotta love humans.
On the plus side, maybe Gamma World will make a comeback.
Bass of Rankin/Bass has departed. Time for an original Hobbit rewatch.
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.
Caught the first two episodes of The Peripheral on Amazon. Never read the source book, so coming in cold.
Digging it so far.
Same.
I have read the book, so I’m pretty stoked for the show.
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.
I didn’t intend to have DJ Shadow in my earbuds this morning, but dayum!
Seems to be good visuals too.
You can tell you are getting old when you get pissed off people are celebrating Halloween today and not October 31st.
I Celebrate Halloween (to some extint) for 31 days.
So there.
I need a favour. Hubby’s birthday is in December. I want to get him this, but I can’t get it in Canada and Amazon US or Star Trek.com won’t ship it to a CDN address
If I order it through Amazon US would I be able to send it to one of you and then have you ship it to me?
Thanks Jack. Could you send me your current address? I’ll probably place the order on Monday when John’s at work
Well that’s S3 of ST:Lower Decks put to bed, great series.
Oh and Star Trek Prodigy started airing it’s second half of the first season and it good too!
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.
To this day, I still count Alien Resurrection as one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen in a theater. Maybe the worst.
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.”
The Beastmaster is the absolute worst I’ve seen in the theater. Although Stallone’s Judge Dredd is pretty close.
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.
I think I saw “Dungeon Master” at the theater. Good God.
Nothing is worse than “Battlefield Earth”.
I’m sure you’re right, ditto. I saw the first 5 mins of “Battlefield Earth” on cable and was done.
You are all amateurs, the worst is On Deadly Ground, the only time I came close to walking out of the cinema.
“A mystical martial artist/environmental Agent takes on a ruthless oil corporation.”
LOL!
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.
I can almost hear Patton Oswalt’s voice speaking through it.
Wow
So you did a 3D scan of your actual pumpkin?
Yep, Iphone 13 with Lidar.
That’s amazing!
So could you turn that into a small model that you could 3D print?
It would be cool to have a 3D model collection of each pumpkin you carve from here on out.
Yeah, any 3d model could be a candidate for printing. Alas, my older 3d printer totally burnt out after a handful of prints. But there are some interesting models in the $200 range that I may pick up for Christmas.
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.
I’m going to the local cinema to avoid it all.
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.
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.
We decided to watch the remastered version of the 1979 movie Phantasm. It turns out, this was not a very good movie at all.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen this from start to finish. The scary evil ball is fun in my memory.
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.
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.
We had about two dozen kids last night. About the same number as pre-Covid so I guess that’s something
We ended up having 7 kids in three groups.
That’s the most since Covid so maybe things are picking up?
I think we had between 12 and 16 kids total, about average. Activity trailed off sharply after 8 PM.
We had 11 which was sharply down from previous years.
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.
Off to the city to visit the vampires this morning
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
Very nice.
Probably the best interpretation of that I have ever seen.
It’s a veritable blizzard out there and the husband will have to drive home in this. I’m not happy
I hope he can mush the dogs to get him home safely.
Hey Rhet,
I am still intrigued by your pumpkin scan.
What app did you use to do that?
I use Scaniverse, it works pretty well. Once scanned there are tools to crop down the model to the desired parts. I’ve been exporting FBX files to my Google Drive.
Thanks!
I know someone with an iPhone 13 and am interested in playing with this!
I can hide away with my 3D printer in my attic laboratory this winter and try it!
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
It’s at it’s best on ice.
I think it starts off great, but then gets way too full of itself and fairly useless when its halfway through.
It’s a little harsh, but not too bad. I’ve had worse
Funny, that’s my typical review of beers that I buy because they are associated with a band (Iron Maiden, Queen, AC/DC, etc.)
LOL Jack.
I hear it pairs well with a super model
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!
I prefer Monkey Shoulder, but Ballantine is not bad. It’s good for mixing too.
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.
Yeh, that stuff has become impossible to find around here.
It’s good to know it is still out there.
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.
Just looked at the prices, ouch!
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.
To put it in perspective a litre bottle of Bailey’s just cost me 13quid.
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..
BLASPHEMER!
😀
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.
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.
Since I’m allergic to smoke, I have problems with scotchs and bourbons that have a heavy smoke component. That’s what gives me the headache. You might have a “similar” problem with some kind of allergy.
Hmmmm.
Could be. Wood smoke will sometimes give me migraines
I remember trying Angel’s Envy – – that’s pretty good stuff. I didn’t realize it was a rye. Drank it when I drove my Chevy to the levee.
Curious: Has that smoke sensitivity ever affected you with bbq meats? Is it different with different woods?
No, fortunately.
There is an Angels Envy Bourbon.
Much less expensive than the Rye which is good news if it was the Bourbon that you tried.
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.
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.
Oooh. Amazon says hubby’s birthday present has reached its US stop
We have the box!
W00T!
Step one of my master plan is complete
Enola Holmes 2 was every bit as delightful as the first one. A recommend from Texas.
Pencilled in to watch on Sunday.
I very much enjoyed the first so I’m in.
Have a wonderful birthday Pixie!!!
Yea Pixie!!
Happy Birthday!
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
I wonder if the Queen’s Gambit is to blame for the poplularity.
I don’t know how many eight year olds watch that show.
Might have watched it with their parents.
Perhaps he can have a bracketed Tournament.
Then Rank the players. Once a week the lowest Ranked player could be challenged by someone outside the club for that position.
Keep them on their toes.
Sounds like an opportunity to recruit some parents that can help with all those extra kids.
Surely some other folks up there know how to play chess?
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.
We’ll, the cat certainly has no concept of daylight savings, she expected to be fed at what is now 3am
Saving Enola Holmes 2 for another day and watching Run Sweetheart Run on Amazon Prime.
Pretty neat genre bending slasher flick.
It’s on Amazon Prime in the UK.
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.
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…
Yeah, I signed up for an account a few years back. I’m on mastodon.social but it’s very slow at the moment as the servers being overloaded with people preparing to jump ship from twitter.
From what I can gather you can follow people’s toots that people post on other servers by following them.
I don’t even remember if I’d tried Mastodon when it launched.
I might need to do it for book/graphic novel promotion – – I’ll make it known if I ever do.
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.
Oh look, it’s Lost Ralph’s birthday. I know we don’t see him much here anymore but, Happy Birthday!
Cheers to lost Ralph!
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.
It’s a little creepy when WordleBot says this to you: “Sensational. We are as one.”
Resistance is futile!
GRITS
GROTE
GRATE
GREAT
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
I did, in fact, get outside to see the start of it. My pic was crap, so I didn’t bother to post it.
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.
It’s cold.
I have to go to the city this afternoon.
I don’t want to.
It’s cold.
Or in 5-7-5
It is cold today
To the city I must go
No please, It is cold.
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.
At the Doc I wait
A Yearly trip to check skin
Missed cancer boat, yea!
How a weaker program can defeat the best AI Go player:
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.
Great voice, and by all accounts, a truly sweet guy. Love Hurts. RIP
CP: Another Chorus — Violent Femmes
Unplugged from the world.
Made cookies and watched Enolia Holmes 2.
I was fun.
Well whatever happens looks like the Dog torturer Dr Oz is going to lose.
Overall, not as bad as predicted. Fingers crossed for AZ.
I did check this morning, and it’s basically 50/50 normal person vs. raving lunatic.
Sigh.
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?
I never knew this was the term for those sorts of flats:
I remember those from some Monty Python skits. (I think the author of the funniest joke in the world lived in one?)
Do we know them from any other famous British shows or movies?
Get Carter I think, the original and not the Stallone remake.
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.
I Changed Astronomy Forever. He Won the Nobel Prize for It. | ‘Almost Famous’ by Op-Docs
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.
CP; William Tell Overture – Grimethorpe Colliery Band
CP: Pruned — Natalie Holt
Just so you know, because of Andor, the husband has grown to hate episodic streaming releases. He wants the next episode NOW
Understandable, for me I’m enjoying looking forward to a new episode on Wednesdays.
I’m not a fan of taking away options. Drop all of the episodes at once and let me watch them at my chosen pace.
FREEEEDDDOOOMMMMMMMM!!
We’dom!
CP: Borders — M.I.A
You’re perfectly free to do that…once they’ve all finished dropping.
Everybody wins!
So rumblings on Twitter that Kevin Conroy, the voice of the animated Batman has died at the age of 66.
I missed most of his career, but I know many have tremendous affection for him. Expect to see many calling him “the best Batman” today. RIP
I loved his work, and he seemed to be an awesome human. I will be replaying the Batman Arkham games at some point in remembrance.
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
Obviously missed my post when I saw it at the cinema :-p
You make posts about going to the cinema? ;P
I saw Oblivion, and I don’t remember thinking much of it. Maybe it would have been better with a different lead actor.
I have not seen Uncharted.
I enjoyed Oblivion, though it was far from great. I’ve avoided Uncharted. I like the games and what I saw of the trailers… *shudder* … that was nothing like the games.
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).
If the Delorean really works, then please take one of these sets back to New Jersey 1985 and deliver one to my younger self.
Only temporary, but the trolling of Eli Lilly and Lockheed Martin on twitter has hit their share prices hard.
Unreal.
This has got to lead to some class action lawsuits against Musk.
His negligent actions (firing the humans in security/verification and replacing them with flawed software) cost other people a financial loss.
I do hope we’re legitimately seeing the tandem downfall of Musk and Trump, and that people are waking up to the fact that lots of money and narcissism are not reasons to idolize anyone.
Tonight’s Peripheral was intense.
The weather is almost livable today.
Have an super duper birthday ditto!
Happy Birthday Ditto!
Happy Happy Joy Joy
To ditto!
Happy birthday, ditto!
Thanks everyone!
So back in 2018, somebody did a short film adaption of The Nine Billion Names of God by ACC:
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.
Best line of review:
” It’s like in its own phylum of movie type or something. Like a platypus.”
Why thank you, Safeway automated checkout, for the very flattering photo of the top of my head. Greatly appreciated.
It was an unflattering view on a shops CCTV camera that put me on the path to shaving my head.
Morning Deadpan
Yeah, that’s it.
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.
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.
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..”
On Quora someone posted that Biden was like a well-done steak, not optimal, but fully edible. Unlike Trump who was like maggot-covered rotting meat.
The global population apparently just hit 8 billion people. Is it getting crowded in here?
It was crowded at half that.
I will be productive today. I will be productive today. I will be…
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.
I hate my mother.
That is all.
I will resist asking what she has done now,
Hugs. Sorry. 🙁
I’m sorry she’s frustrating you. Hoping for better relations in the future.
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!
Well only one more episode of Andor to go, looking forward to next weeks finale.
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.
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.
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.
Well, first season is the gold standard. And over-all through season 4 is pretty good. There are some bits that really feel like Python to me. My daughter can resite the entire script of this episode from memory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68h8-ESTY6o
“That’s not a circle, that’s an oval.” Still cracks me up.
The quest this weekend is to upgrade my iPhone to an iPhone 14 Pro Max, with the shortages due to problems in China it is not looking good.
So after checking all week the phone was back in stock at 9pm on a Saturday night, where is the logic in that?
Not sure mine are shattered. As the years went by I noticed that all of his charactures had a smart-ass, abrasive bent to them and felt that it must have been part of him.
That being said… IMHO he is not wrong about the median quality of SNL.
[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.
Dangit. I did that last year, too. Pretend all the square brackets are pointy brackets. :silly:
I know a few sites that use that particular formatting style. No worries.
Count me in. I’ll check with TCat.
I’m sure that Tiffany and I will be in, but we’ll make it official. Sorry to hear about the Facebook hack, Amy. That is truly truly awful.
But – – thank you for taking this on every year!!!
I’m in.
Being hacked sucks 🙁
I’m in.
I’ll post something on the FB page
Posted!
I also sent you an email about this a week or so ago but I think I only had your old email address. I’ll update my data and make sure all info is sent to the new one.
Thank you!! Yeah, the Yahoo Mail address is the one I use for Gravatar, signing up for things I don’t care about too much, and spam, and that’s about it. Stuff I’m focused on goes to Gmail now. 🙂
I’m in this year
“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.
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.
We watched this awhile ago and quite liked it.
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.
I’ve read a bit more. The “Forge of God” series was excellent. His stories were a bit hit-and-miss for me, but like you, I appreciated his world building.
I met him a loooong time ago when his son was quite young. Greg was quite nice. At the time, his son was less so.
I was a linguistics minor in my undergraduate days so I really enjoyed that article.
Morning Pan
Having brunch with a friend later this morning.
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.
You know going to be a rebel and turn off the screen always on function of the phone.
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.
So we’ve hit the historical era where all of the megaego zillionaires have just fully embraced their villainy.
We can joke about guillotines, but they own all the guillotines.
Ticketmaster should have been broken up eons ago.
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.
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 hope you packed a lunch before you headed of on that journey.
Currently in Boulder to spend Thanksgiving with my eldest.
Gorgeous out here. Though the mood is a bit somber.
Great humans doing their best to be happy, in spite of the worst of humanity.
I think that’s the slogan of our times.
Any “Sport-os” in the room? (Random Ferris Bueller reference)
USA plays in the World Cup in a little while.
VS Wales
Completely sailed over my crossbar.
Watch the latest Last Week with John Oliver about how fucked up this years World Cup is.
I’m giving it a miss, in respect to those dead workers.
You are correct about the Qatar shenanigans. Seems like pretty much everyone in FIFA that was involved in giving them the cup has now been convicted of taking bribes.
Best was last week when, in a total middle finger to the Football fanbase, Qatar announces there would be NO alcohol sales.
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.
It came out a month ago, but sounds like 1970s AM gold.
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.
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.
Spoilers in the article (I encountered some and skipped, so I’m not sure if it spoils the Andor finale).
Just watched the finale. Did you catch the post credit scene?
That’s no moon!
I imagine that none of you have seen Bluey, which is the big kid show of the day. It truly is super charming. Super strange to see humans speaking those voices.
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.
On a happier note, I enjoyed the first episode of Wednesday on Netflix.
Morning Pan
Lunch with my Boo today.
Happy Thanksgiving US panites
And a fabulous Thursday to everyone else!
Happy Thanksgiving to those ‘Mercian’s here in Deadpan Land
Hubby’s school had a 30% absentee rate yesterday. I’m sure glad the pandemic is over
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.
So she was racing with her bf and killed two kids and we are suppose to feel sorry for her:
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.
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.
So there are rumours another Dredd film is in development with Karl Urban attached.
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
Rhettro said he was in on FB.
Yeah, just Rhett and Jack on FB. Before you assign, you should DM CJ, She usually likes to be in but often forgets to check the feeds.
Thanks much, Bunny and Van! I will get in touch with CJ, as well as a few other past participants whom I haven’t heard from lately. I will get back to you with assignments as soon as I can.
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 think you have covered my entire knowledge base.
Mullaney was my newest one. I find him really funny.
Chris Hardwick
April Richardson
Ron Funches
Nicki Glaser
Paul F Tompkins
Whitney Cummings
Basically, anyone who was on @midnight.
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’.
Morons even.
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.
CP: Stitches — Orgy
I never found Dane Cook funny, Carrot Top either.
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.
That’s my take as well.
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.
My web designer seems to have ghosted me. This is especially bad since she is also my daughter
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.
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.
Agreed.
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.
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.
I think it was the tunnel I painted on the wall that fooled the coyote into going the wrong way.
You were smart not to step forward onto the giant “X” painted on the sidewalk.
*it didn’t. . .
*
This is why I don’t do serious writing on a phone.
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!”
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.
Four loads of laundry today. Another reason to hate winter
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.
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.
Enjoyed the first episode.
Still brr
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.
Well they might be expensive … but at least the reliability and service is crap.
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.
Tribute to Jerry Lawson, father of the video cartridge on Google today.
My Boo may be a schmo sometimes, but she does good work
ryah.thehobobox.com
Nice-looking website! Good job, boo.
Is it officially live yet?
Yeah. It’s live. A friend is even going to put it in his January newsletter
Welp, I need to head to the city in the brrr. I’m not happy.
The fog between Airdrie and Calgary was insane. I hope it clears when it’s time for me to go back
I hope you got home safely, Bunny!
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”.
Blaze seems to have a bunch of solo albums. I don’t think I’ll commit to the entire catalogue. Not just yet. I have added Silicon Messiah to an upcoming playlist.
No need to commit to the entire catalog. LOL
In less Metal news, Ann Wilson (of Heart) has a 2022 album with a mix of covers and new originals.
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! 🙂
Thank you Amy.
You’re very welcome! 🙂
Kitty goes to the vet today. I’m sure she will be quite impressed
-30C with the wind chill right now. I think I’ll just relax in front of the fireplace for now
egads. I hope Kitty kept warm. Oh, and you too, of course.
The Google Doodle for today has quite a bit going on. Could probably waste a few hours with it for sure.
Cool! I don’t think I recall his name, but he definitely had a giant impact on my childhood.
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?)
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.
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.
Hugs Bunny. That’s a lot of emotion to work through, especially around the holidays.
What Rhett said.
Sorry you have to carry all of that. I can only send best wishes to you and yours through this difficult stuff.
Well the season 1 finale of the Peripheral was rather incomprehensible.
Hopefully it will get a S2.
Plan on watching it tonight. I doubt it can be as unfocused as 1899.
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.
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.
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.
Well dpss gift ordered, delivery window is 18 to 55 days , so you could get it after Xmas.
Well dpss gift ordered, delivery window is 18 to 55 days , so you could get it after Xmas.
I don’t know who that Vananonde guy is, looks fishy.
Watched the movie Smile yesterday. It was good. If you like those kinds of movies, I’d recommend it
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!
Oo, What board game?
My DPSS recipient should get theirs this week.
Wacky Racers (the old Hanna-Barbera cartoon with Dirk Dastardly and Muttley).
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.
Well that is vague enough that I can only guess it’s definitely not William Gibson.
I honestly had no idea he was on the show for so long.
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.
Welp. My grandmother did pass away yesterday. Nobody’s surprised but It’s still sad.
There won’t be any memorial as, pretty much everybody she knew is no longer alive.
Sad news, condolences on your loss.
Sorry to here this for you and your family.
Best wishes as you forge through this.
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.
Sorry for your family’s loss, Bunny. 105 is a rare accomplishment.
Sorry Bunny. A death in the family is always tough regardless of the circumstances.
I always avoid posting “Celebrity yells at other celebrity” and I’ve mostly been to the Musk chatter. . . . so this will be the rare exception. Bravo, Jack White.
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.
I know she’s better known for her roles like Cheers, but she’ll always be Lt. Saavik to me.
Farwell, Lt.
I wish she could have stayed with the Savvik role.
RIP
She was high up in Scientology who promise that they become immune to cancer.
Go figure..
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. . .
Welcome to the ROP rocked club.
I was not as versed in the lore as the husband but I still found the show kind of meh.
Sorry.
IIRC, hubby is a Tolkien scholar? And did you say he was also disappointed?
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.
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.
CP: Old Friends (Hummed) — Darren Korb
Rewatched Coco tonight. This time in Dolby Atmos and Vision.
Rewatched Coco tonight. This time in Dolby Atmos and Vision.
Tom Waits is 73 today!! I’ll buy the piano a drink.
When you check a magazine subscription thinking it had ended and find out you still have six issues to get..WTF!
Magazine subscriptions, I remember those.
Still waiting on my magerzines from Jimmy in Denver.
Variations on the same song, this one doesn’t even sound like Dylan to me:
Morning Pan
Tonight we’re going to a dinner theatre for a Christmas party
I haven’t done either one of those since before the world ended.
Apparently mom’s FB page got suspended (not sure if it’s temporary or permanent) for spreading Covid misinformation. Seriously, how are we related?
Ugh. Is she a denier?
She’s vaxxed. But she still believes in some of the other stupid stuff.
Frankly, I’m surprised she wasn’t suspended earlier on some of her other silliness.
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)
5,4,3,2,1!
Earth below us
drifting, falling
floating weightless
calling, calling home
Like 99 Red Balloons, it sounds better in German.
I didn’t even realize there was a German version. I can’t say that I like either of those songs better in German. But I did have the 99 Luftballons album at the time and equally like the German and English songs on the album.
Alex and Geddy play Rush classics with friends at the L.A. Taylor Hawkins tribute:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rnvpXjIg3I
RIP Coolio:
https://variety.com/2022/music/news/coolio-dead-dies-gangstas-paradise-rapper-1235387456/
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.
CP: Sitting On A Poor Man’s Throne — Copperpenny
For a long time, I floated the idea of using a role-playing game to create fiction. Then I stumbled onto this podcast where the author does just that. It is well done.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tale-of-the-manticore-a-dark-fantasy/id1506247097
I’ve heard of many modern High Fantasy novel with connections to D&D campaigns, but I’m curious about this author’s twist on it.
https://variety.com/2022/film/news/star-trek-sequel-removed-paramount-film-slate-1235386228/
Looks like there won’t be a new Star Trek in theaters for awhile.
Honestly, the Paramount streaming shows seem to be scratching that itch pretty well.
You should get that looked at. It’s infected.
Goodbye to Google Stadia:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/09/google-stadia-officially-shuts-down-january-2023-will-refund-game-purchases/
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.
I talked to dUg Pinnick of King’s X today!
Nice get!
Did you ask him why Gretchen went to Nebraska?
Looks interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVU0zESXS5c
This could be an interesting new trend. I get the excitement of being able to still be out there while retired. Just not sure how comfortable I would be with not having final say in what my likeness was associated with.
https://geektyrant.com/news/bruce-willis-sells-rights-allow-a-digital-twin-of-himself-to-be-created-for-use-in-tv-and-film
Wait… the internet lied to me? I’ve never been so shocked or insulted.
https://geektyrant.com/news/bruce-willis-denies-reports-of-selling-his-face-to-ai-company-to-make-deepfake-digital-twin
We bought some gin for a change. Now hubby has pulled out a guitar and is playing Cold Gin by Kiss, over and over and over…
We’ll all be happy to know he’s moved on to playing Hotel California
Maybe you should buy him some tequila, or perhaps some red red wine.
Back to Kiss with Detroit Rock City
Now it’s Bark at the Moon by Ozzy
We’re all over the place this afternoon
It will soon be Cold Gin time again. You know it’ll always win.
Good short summary of the formation of England
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWPLjg10D2A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMzV2VNN2sg
I somehow never heard this one during my Dr. Demento days, even though it’s apparently his most-played song (fact check?).
This guy strikes me as Bill Murray on cocaine.
That was always one of my Dr Demento favorites.
Although fortunately the version he played had half as much chatting.
30 minutes of relaxing nature scenes from the Studio Ghibli films:
https://youtu.be/z9Ug-3qhrwY
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.
Finally watched the first Andor episode!
It’s good. All setup. I’m looking forward to seeing where all of this goes.
There’s a bit of a nip in the air this morning. It’s about time.
My friends back in the NYC area have said that this is a non-story. I do have a hard time believing that any Renfaire event would intentionally exclude anyone, but maybe I’m being naive.
https://patch.com/new-york/washington-heights-inwood/massive-medieval-fest-quietly-excludes-its-nyc-neighbors-locals
I don’t have anything to add, except the first thought that entered my head was: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265087/?ref_=fn_al_tt_0
I blame society for my thought process.
Anyway, here’s my dUg Pinnick interview:
https://youtu.be/vrHo_rQsP5A
After you click the dUg Pinnick interview link, check out the new Wakanda trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z3QKkl1WyM
Looks good!
We’ve talked about the mostly very good but uneven Phase 4 of Marvel. I think this is when it starts to get put together
Also dUg!
Apologies. I should have responded to this post in 2022 language:
But Namor is played by a Mexican! Ah der ah der ah der!
Namor can’t be a Mexican! He is clearly a vulcan!
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dsCwMiAsSfo/Tg-tXmB-JpI/AAAAAAAASVE/OqCtp0uoeaA/s1600/Sub-Mariner%2B20-01.jpg
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.
Alicent is clearly sucking the life force out of him…
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.
Morning Pan
I might need more sleep this morning.
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.
If it was a quote from “The Wrath of Khan” you can’t go wrong.
Sign the KHAAAAAANNNNN! …tract.
I hope you get it! Don’t hesitate to ask if you can benefit from a customer testimonial.
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.
I’m hoping Canada heats up enough to be an option in case we have to flee fascism down here.
Just as long as it doesn’t reach Arizona temperatures.
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.
Co-designed by the guy who created Pandemic
:
https://t.co/u4djuqMSoW
Could be fun.
I’m thinking this would be great place for a DnD campaign.
https://www.camelbackcastle.com/photos/index.html
I wonder if they’re constantly chasing LARPers off of the property.
There’s a non-zero chance.
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.
Argle Bargle
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.
Schrodinger’s prescriptions.
The important point is that you do in fact have prescriptions. Whether you can pick them up or not…. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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.
Is it wrong that, being a DC film, I have lowered expectations for Blac Adam?
Not to mention that it stars Dwayne Johnson.
(Does he have a GREAT movie to his name? Come at me!)
He does not make “great” films. He makes extremely fun, rewatchable films.
Dwayne Johnson gets a bad rap. He’s not Vin Diesel.
Actually, Moana WAS pretty great.
Moana is definitely his best. Well, aside from Southland Tales.
I actually have no problem with Dwayne or Vin Diesel, but neither will convince me to watch any movie.
I… dont think either is trying to convince. Either you wanna have fun at a film or you don’t.
Yes, they care very much what movies I watch!
How can you not see the brilliance that was Tooth Fairy???!!! It was, literally, the best movie ever made. There is no way that Dwayne Johnson didn’t see that right off the bat on seeing the title alone.
Well the DC track record has been pretty dismal so far, with the first WW film and Shazam being any good, so no.
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 do need to watch that Harley Quinn movie.
Thank You Lo!
I thought I was the only one. I felt the same about WW. I think it’s good for a DC movie, but that didn’t make it a good movie. It makes it an ok movie.
The 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.
And Clive Barker is 70 today!
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,
Hubbiless tonight. I guess that means life is back to normal in school since it’s back to in person parent-teacher interviews.
Go to Google.com and do a search for VELMA and see what happens.
I am pretty “meh” about this.
Eh, I think it’s a good move.
Latest She-Hulk episode was epic!
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.
Well anal bead cheat is possible even if the prototype looks rather eye watering:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/10/adafruits-cheekmate-gets-to-the-bottom-ahem-of-chess-cheating-controversy/
On a more serious note, there is a flatter version that can be slipped into your shoe.
That can reach one’s anus? Impressive.
Today is worse than yesterday. Watching, waiting, checking temperature.
/ hugs Jack, I hope your daughter gets well soon.
I hope she gets better soon.
Temp is better, although let’s see what happens overnight. She’s still congested and a tiny bit cranky.
Negative for cold and flu, so there’s that.
Oh goodness this looks utter shite:
https://youtu.be/YUvdR5TVYR0
They even ripping off a scene from the Battle of the Bulge…WTF.
Dolph Lungren ain’t no Robert Shaw
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).
https://www.spreaker.com/user/podiobooks.com/episode-5-twelve-bar-blues-by-jack-manga
Just dug this up for a relisten. I’m still pretty darned proud of it.
RIP, Judy Tenuta.
https://apnews.com/article/judy-tenuta-obituary-comedian-dcc89453f6d79f27c73287045978de0d
That sucks. She was insanely funny.
Sadness.
I liked her weirdness.
Well late to the party, but got my bivalent covid booster today.
Getting a fine collection of little cards…
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
Huzzah for two long weekend in a row!
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
Lame! Sometimes good medical pros have terrible office staff. I’d move on too.
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
CP: Speed King — Röyksopp
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.
CP: We Won’t Come Out — Silversun Pickups
News on Good Omens 2
https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/nycc-good-omens-2-teases-and-release-info-from-neil-gaiman
This is excellent news
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Apxh5kVq0bs
Jimi Hendrix in 1970. This looks and sounds incredible.
Reinforces my thought that his later-era songs were less special, but that he never lost his performing edge. Damn, he is a first stop on the Time Travel circuit.
I got chills, they multiplying.
Ah well, not unexpected.
https://buttonshygames.com/products/sprawlopolis
A slice of history:
https://collegeofparamedics.co.uk/COP/News/the_angel_of_platform_6_abbie_sweetwine.aspx
Good story indeed. Thanks
CW: The Midnight Club E1
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.
So the spinoff TV series of the movie is getting a new movie and that movie will have it’s own spinoff series. It was a descent enough movie. But I never thought it was that good.
https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3735574/teen-wolf-the-movie-and-spinoff-series-wolf-pack-premiering-in-january-2023-teasers/
I haven’t seen Teen Wolf since it was fresh on VHS. I think I’m good.
Teaser of S5 of Discovery:
https://youtu.be/TJwVNppatK0
I second Van’s WBN review. It’s pretty damn brilliant. Laura Donnelly is breathtaking as usual.
Some wise words from Shatner:
https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/william-shatner-space-boldly-go-excerpt-1235395113/
Is WBN a one-off single episode?
Yes Jack, just 50 minutes of your precious viewing time.
Damn! Just for, I won’t watch it! That’ll show you.
ROFL!
What could go wrong?
https://www.freethink.com/technology/salt-grain-micro-camera
Big Brother is Watching!
Utterly vile:
https://youtu.be/ltmlvk9GAto
Wait till the end for a small light at the end of the tunnel.
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…
-n +b
Sonos – the product you’ll hate to love.
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.
Gobble, gobble Deadpan!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Canucksgiving!
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.
Trying the dentist thing again today. Let’s see if it actually happens.
Fingers crossed!
Happy happy birthday Rhett!
Happy Birthday Rhett !
Happy Rhettro day!
I’d like this sickness to be done now. That’d be great.
Get up, come on, get down with the sickness Get up, come on, get down with the sickness.
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.
Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone!
Happy birthday!
Although I’ve heard of stuff he wrote I had not heard of him till today:
https://t.co/JjhVHHQs5J
I actually know the name, but not many of his works. Good candidate for a deep dive!
And yes, the elder 3 of us in the Mangan household enjoyed Werewolf By Night. Since I went in blind, I encountered a few pleasant surprises.
CP: Too Bad — Doug and the Slugs
..and it’s goodbye to Angela Lansbury:
https://t.co/rSA0c1Uxxq
A good age but still sad.
96 is pretty damn impressive. Go Angela!
Ok, after finishing The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis, I will now cry BULLSHIT to the ‘different medium’ excuse for poor book adaptions.
Sure. But this has gotta be a case-by-case discussion. Some books translate to film better than others. And there have been times when filmmakers made cool innovations. The 1930s Frankenstein films, for example.
Or another example would be Blader- –
*dies of coughing fit*
If my eye balls were not attached they would have just rolled out on to the floor..
Like in Minority Report! Another PKD adaptation!
There have been plenty of great adaptations. And some that are better than the book.
One example: How To Train Your Dragon. The book is awful. Only 8 year-old boys will like it. The movie is a gem.
I’m just gonna have to put this out there – Bladerunner the movie is better than the book that inspired it.
I also like Harrison Ford’s narration version…
Ed, this is why I love you.
I am an “Ed From Texas” fan boy and damn proud of it.
https://www.revolvermag.com/music/anthraxs-charlie-benante-my-5-favorite-drummers
Interesting list.
Ray Parker Jnr’s vocals added to the C64 version of Ghostbusters theme tune:
https://youtu.be/puJy6IlHmOA
That’s glorious.
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.
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!”
Saw Meshugga and In Flames Monday night. I think I lost all the hearing I have left, but it was worth it.
Saw your video and now know what hell will be like…
…awesome! I know, right?
Lots of Djent.
https://www.wikihow.com/Djent
Episode 6 of Andor was amazing.
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.
I know the feeling. We haven’t started this nor She-Hulk. And we haven’t finished Halo or Ms. Marvel either. Haven’t watched the recent Thor movie either.
We just started this season’s “Stranger Things”.
Glad we waited. It’s a good Spooky Season view.
The Bear has dropped on Disney+ outside the USA, not sci-fi but well worth a watch.
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!
Yes, we’re hopelessly behind on our shows. That’s all right, though. We are caught up on Andor!
CP: Guerre Sous Couvertures — The Offspring
How much more Prog can you get??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2qJYs-GWcg
If Tim Burton’s Batman film was a silent movie:
https://youtu.be/LlZgWM-pFFc
You can watch the full film at:
https://archive.org/details/batmanthesilentmotionpicture
Morning Pan
I woke up this morning with a bruised knuckle. I have no idea how I got it.
You should see the other guy!
A slice of history and how it reflects on what might happen:
https://t.co/2XjlFHs2WN
Fascinating. Terrifying.
Those who ignor history are doomed to repeat it.
Sammy Hagar is 75 today!
He now drives 55 in the far left lane.
Brilliant!
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/moderately-motivated-gen-xer-for-hire
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.”
https://www.metalhalloffame.org/heavy-metals-future-world/
A sneak preview of my newest. Not yet publicized.
Well that sounds fucked up:
https://t.co/wy1ndyW7AV
How about No:
https://t.co/ocLZDRILzd
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 was always kind of meh on these movies. Controversial I know
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.
https://www.hollywoodinsider.com/jackie-brown-tarantino/
In praise of Jackie Brown
Morning Pan
Off to the city this morning.
Werewolf by Night was pretty darn good.
Goodbye to Robbie Coltrane:
https://t.co/eblo4pQQlW
Damn
Well Rings of Power season finale was a corker.
Bit of an Iron Giant vibe in one scene.
I have no idea what unit of measurement a corker is, but I thought the first season had a satisfying wrap up. Looking forward to more of this.
I believe it falls somewhere between
“a Pip” and “a crown jewel”.
A corker is a butt plug, Ed.
CP: Lovebomb — Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Well that is not good:
https://t.co/ID4BA46LXx
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?
I enjoyed all the Dead Space games and am looking forward to the new one.
The real life inspiration behind the Netflix show, The Watcher.
https://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/a41503769/the-watcher-true-story-behind-haunted-house/
Interesting to me because I have a lot of history with Westfield.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVG33evOq10
Holy crap. I can’t imagine riding this.
Well now we know:
https://t.co/spabp9tw7e
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/14/1128923148/german-students-break-the-world-record-for-fastest-accelerating-electric-car-aga
Amazing.
Fast Times at Höhenzug High.
Don’t click if you’re not caught up on Rings of Power
https://www.slashfilm.com/1054307/the-rings-of-power-broke-the-biggest-rule-from-lord-of-the-rings/
Certainly Rings of Power’s most egregious offense 🙂
This is funny
I’m actually glad RoP is over. Hubby looked forward to watching it, then constantly complained about how it went off cannon. Although, to be fair, I had a lot of issues and I’m not the Tolkienfile he is.
Seriously, would hobbits (harfoots) really abandon you to certain death simply because you broke your leg?
I haven’t finished RoP yet but I’ll say I’ve been as bored with it as I have been with House of the Dragon. Nothing really happening. Then I say the title of this article today:
https://geektyrant.com/news/the-rings-of-power-showrunners-compare-sauron-to-walter-white-in-season-2-and-say-it-will-be-the-season-fans-are-hoping-for
So season 2 is when we’re going to start ramping up now? And I thought it was bad that shows were taking 3 episodes to ramp up because people like to give a show 3 episodes to see if they like it or not.
My comment on this seemed to have got lost in moderation hell
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.
Weird Science is one of the most quotable movies ever.
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.”
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.
It got cancelled so you can just stop now if you want.
I really wanted to like the newest from Filter. I almost did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPWqkraRyBs
Morning Pan
I have nothing to do today but I still got up at 4am. What’s that about?
Ah dramatic license:
https://t.co/Q34vFVAmDG
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.
CP: Borders — MIA
Eye Dr Appt today, so my eyes are still buggin;
Just got my Covid Booster.
Here is hoping the next 24 hours aren’t as bad as after the previous booster.
Good luck!
I get my flu jab this week.
12 hours later and I’m not feeling so good.
But not nearly as bad as the last two Covid shots. Hope I can say that in the morning
I can’t.
Last night sucked. Got the high fever, shakes,chills, muscle/joint pain sometime after 1am. It had broken by 4pm though.
Today will certainly be a recovery day.
That is awful. I do hope thongs have improved! And that tomorrow is better.
Sad news:
https://t.co/HoLAnyoagN
So I found our next Deadpan Meetup activity.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1581736941891952643
I’ll be the blue guy that possibly didn’t make it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mwJAAqq3spA
Turn up the volume
I’d be up for it.
An interview with the star of I, Claudius:
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/oct/17/derek-jacobi-on-age-ego-igglepiggle-and-unrequited-love?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2OQl0VmImWe3AymwqO6FhI-SlMZmQ9Z8SGZDpyCigtHyTsZwfBZ1CjQro#Echobox=1665987142
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.
Still, 105, wow!
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.
Yeah, I’m sure that isn’t helping.
I hope for the best for everything through this.
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.
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.
Yet you have no problem with Deadpool doing the same. Interesting.
This is top tier D+ Marvel
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.
I was laughing pretty hard at the Madisynn/Wong banter. I’d watch a show that was just them.
CP: Forget-U-Not — 9Nine
This reminds me more of the V1 attacks on London than the kamikaze pilots mentioned in the article;
https://t.co/erVME0CbbN
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.
I think one of the hardest parts of hubby’s job is parental custody issues.
Been on the other side of that.
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
Oh…. my god…. (probably not a serious question)
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.
Hmmm:
https://t.co/UM6gvEMD49
I actually enjoyed the Wild Wild West.
I dodged almost all of those. Some I’ve never even heard of.
At least Nothing But Trouble gave us that fantastic Digital Underground song.
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.
Ah yes, it’s been a few years and my brain is mush.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sheriff_of_Babylon
That’s a fun system! Is there a reason, or just because?
I’m reading far fewer comics/graphic novels these days, since Amazon wrecked Comixology.
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.
The only one I haven’t read in those is Kingdom Come so I’ve added it to the list.
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.
This sickness needs to GTFO of our house now. No one is fully over it and Tiffany is down and out with it now.
Ugh.
Ok, are people up for doing a meet-up next year?
I’m open to it! Let’s discuss.
Ya, start discusserin.
Vancouver
Akron, OH
I’ve heard Tehran has a pretty big board game scene.
https://foursquare.com/top-places/tehran/best-places-board-games
I’m up for the discussion
Ok why Vancouver or Ohio?
Orlando. Has more than enough to do and it wouldn’t require me having to travel. Just sayin’
Vancouver because of the Canucks.
Akron because it was a featured location in “No One Lives Forever 2”.
Calgary has bunches of stuff too.
I was actually disappointed we didn’t get one this year, so I’m definitely game for 23.
Ok then:
https://t.co/XIbjoXxZPA
got my locks chopped this morning. Now I might need a shower because I’m all itchy
I figured War Pigs covers had been done to death, but Puddles the Clown has done something pretty amazing with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT8t3i8CkMQ&t=3s
That clown is a national treasure.
Brilliance.
And also underlines how powerful that song is.
A youngster lacking knowledge of the songs origins might think it was written for the current situation in the Ukraine.
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
Uggghh. If Thanos could have modified his snap to only dust the truly horrible people, then I’d have been all for it.
Does that me me truly horrible?
Apparently it does!
Nope, not horrible. I could go for that.
One of the best Gen X articles ever:
https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/life-moves-pretty-fast-why-gen-x-got-it-before-the-rest-of-you-kpkn/
Pretty short read.
Well enjoyed the first episode of The Peripheral on Amazon Prime.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt8291284/
Was just gonna post about this. Another damn show on my list! I recall scattered details of the book. I know it’s unhip to like anything from William Gibson after 1986, but I kinda dug it.
Analog tank simulator:
https://youtu.be/AcQifPHcMLE
It’s as entertaining to watch as it probably is to drive.
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.”
It snowed over night
I need to find my snow boots
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.
For goodness sake speak English man!
Are you talking about House of the Dragon?
She=Hulk
Ugh. “Less bad”
Not usually my kind of film but Tom Hanks might pull of off:
https://youtu.be/MEMzJZ60eVs
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.
I guess we need (?) a new one of these every few years.
Finally! A version of Top Gun that I can get behind. BTW, this actually ramps up to the promised title at around 2:53.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCa_lAxHvhM
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.
Everything about this!
Those old recordings of Tolkien are absolute treasures.
So many clocks:
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/2022/10/23/waterfords-museum-of-time-shortlisted-for-prestigious-visitor-attraction-award/
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!
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.
A lot of people on twitter moaning about being denied a kiss.
I’ve been on my own for the Jody episodes, and I can’t get motivated to watch them.
Maybe I’ll just skip to watch this one.
Same here
I feel like this picture of David Tennet is just begging to be mashed up with the portrait of Kramer from Seinfeld.
https://geektyrant.com/news/doctor-who-teaser-trailer-reveals-david-tennet-is-back-as-the-doctor-with-ncuti-gatwa-set-to-follow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScnIhjl5zeM
Reflecting on how good Ultima VII was:
https://youtu.be/ZcSlg7PzbHg
CP: Youth — Daughter
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.”
Apparently, tomorrow’s newsletter is my last act.
All the emotions!
wOOt! Now for the online gaming blog.
Happy Retirement!
Goodbye to Leslie Jordan:
https://bit.ly/3z6i4jm
Have a chilled out experience driving a car through a procedurally generated landscape..in your browser:
https://slowroads.io/
Needs a physical keyboard, so won’t work on mobile.
Cool, but I keep expecting Bowser to jump out and throw bananas at me.
New Star Wars film being planned:
http://thr.cm/zVgIQxi
About damn time. And I’m thrilled they brought Lindeloff in.
Well off to see Black Adam at the cinema, after the scathing reviews my hopes are not high.
Not a terrible film, but would advise to wait till you cat watch it at home.
Getting snow tire put on my car today.
Good news for North American Doctor Who fans:
https://www.engadget.com/doctor-who-disney-plus-2023-150040129.html
Jesus, Disney. . .
I guess this means it will drop from HBO.
https://comicbook.com/horror/news/big-trouble-in-little-china-sequel-james-hong-reaction-lo-pan-the-rock-dwayne-johnson-reboot/
I’d actually love more stories set in this world. I’d just like to see it done right, not as a slick big budget vehicle for action star du jour.
I got the final TEB Tyche newsletter.
Same here, but no sign off and no dolphins.
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!
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.
Hmmm:
https://t.co/BOFLQ10xB2
https://www.livescience.com/minibrains-play-pong
Wait until they discover the Atari 2600.
Yeah, but when can we expect a mix of mouse and human neurons in the next Playstation?
Breaking down the creative decisions that made Andor so good:
https://t.co/tWwtJjwmfB
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.”
Free is good.
James Gunn is the new “Kevin Feige” of the DCEU.
This is a very good thing.
I think this is a good thing.
Is this a good thing?
There’s a DCEU?
As long as he does one more Guardians of the Galaxy movie for “the competition.”
Guardians 3 already Gunn.
I mean done.
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
Maybe there is karma after all:
https://t.co/olcOimWU6w
I’m sure he looked cool and felt comfortable in his final moment.
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.
Speaking of GotG – the upcoming Xmas special looks absolutely wholesome and delightful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMx7a6YyTjI
I really hope these “Special Presentations” become more of a regular thing.
Can I get an amen?
Amen, Brother Rhett
SFF Big Fat Problem:
https://t.co/Hqcu1wxAwi
I actually enjoyed Master of Djinn and did not feel disgusted by the fat man labouring up the stairs in the Egyptian heat.
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.
-excepted +accepted.
It was good of George Soros to bankroll that.
Indeed!
So this was on offer on the kindle store:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/nazi-germany-as-a-travel-destination-a-new-book-explores-how-hitler-duped-tourists/2018/08/28/d3265ca2-a63a-11e8-8fac-12e98c13528d_story.html
Goodness know when I will get round to actually read it though.
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.
Looks interesting. I just started “Control” myself. It isn’t bad, but I was hoping for more of a F.E.A.R. experience.
Currently addicted to Vampire Survivors, a simple game that plays nicely on the Steamdeck.
Boo’s car goes in for winter tires today. Last one, then we are all ready for the season
Those wind gusts on the highway were not fun to drive in
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.
It’s a slow burn, but not boring.
It’s the opposite of boring.
To be honest it’s refreshing to have a SW show without the Jedi bullshit.
If you have a compatible DSLR you could help investigate atmospheric sprites:
https://go.nasa.gov/3W88nuA
Oh, Hope Sandoval. . . .
https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2012/02/29/mazzy-star-black-session-la-maison-de-la-radio-paris-france/
There’s a youtube link and an option to download.
The return of the nuke map:
https://t.co/Wb8oAmSTXj
Ah yes, I remember those. I grew up in a town neighboring Linden, NJ, which was a target, due to its numerous refineries and factories. Gotta love humans.
On the plus side, maybe Gamma World will make a comeback.
John Cleese is 83 today!
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/27/1131936089/rudolph-red-nosed-reindeer-jules-bass-frosty-snowman
Bass of Rankin/Bass has departed. Time for an original Hobbit rewatch.
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.
Caught the first two episodes of The Peripheral on Amazon. Never read the source book, so coming in cold.
Digging it so far.
Same.
I have read the book, so I’m pretty stoked for the show.
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.
I didn’t intend to have DJ Shadow in my earbuds this morning, but dayum!
Seems to be good visuals too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKsLM00tLFE
Notorious singer Jerry Lee Lewis dies aged 87 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63433999
Oo, so his cousin is single now?
You can tell you are getting old when you get pissed off people are celebrating Halloween today and not October 31st.
I Celebrate Halloween (to some extint) for 31 days.
So there.
I need a favour. Hubby’s birthday is in December. I want to get him this, but I can’t get it in Canada and Amazon US or Star Trek.com won’t ship it to a CDN address
If I order it through Amazon US would I be able to send it to one of you and then have you ship it to me?
https://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Tridimensional-Chess-Set/dp/B08NQ1G6RB
We volunteer!
Thanks Jack. Could you send me your current address? I’ll probably place the order on Monday when John’s at work
Well that’s S3 of ST:Lower Decks put to bed, great series.
Oh and Star Trek Prodigy started airing it’s second half of the first season and it good too!
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.
Fascinating Tom Bombadil theory.
https://km-515.livejournal.com/1042.html
Also: Livejournal still exists??
He can still fuck off, even if evil he’s still bloody annoying
It was such an odd excursion – – and so early in the story too.
Well that is worrying:
https://newatlas.com/science/tree-ring-radiation-storms-solar-flares/
Blecch. Booster 4 side effects. Mild but still blecch.
For those keeping score at home:
Aches
Nausea
Headache
Gunky throat
Fatigue
I avoided the nausea and apparently replaced that with a low fever.
Still beats being dead.
WTF:
http://thr.cm/PoxaDeD
It’s really bizarre how much She-Hulk redeemed itself in the final 3 episodes. Great stuff.
Damn, if the whole series had been like that!
https://youtu.be/C2cMG33mWVY
Parents fucking up their kids yet again:
https://t.co/V0jvnFiRrx
I still prefer Amelie:
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/alien-resurrection-interview-joss-whedon-jean-pierre-jeunet-b2212720.html
I still prefer Amelie:
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/alien-resurrection-interview-joss-whedon-jean-pierre-jeunet-b2212720.html
To this day, I still count Alien Resurrection as one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen in a theater. Maybe the worst.
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.”
The Beastmaster is the absolute worst I’ve seen in the theater. Although Stallone’s Judge Dredd is pretty close.
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.
I think I saw “Dungeon Master” at the theater. Good God.
Nothing is worse than “Battlefield Earth”.
I’m sure you’re right, ditto. I saw the first 5 mins of “Battlefield Earth” on cable and was done.
You are all amateurs, the worst is On Deadly Ground, the only time I came close to walking out of the cinema.
“A mystical martial artist/environmental Agent takes on a ruthless oil corporation.”
LOL!
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.
The failure of ‘The Car of the Future’:
https://t.co/kuzQwhO8Z0
The “Car of the Future” really needed an airbag.
Yo, Jack!
Email?
Yeah Jack, E-Mail!
Well I never heard of this type of system till today:
https://ecoinnovation.ca/residential-drain-water-heat-recovery/#:~:text=WHAT%20IS%20DRAIN%20WATER%20HEAT%20RECOVERY%3F%201%20At,you%20are%20now%20feeding%20it%20warm%20water.%20
TRICK OR TREAT!
Happy Halloween all 🙂
Happy Halloween Joe!
And because we are living in the future, here is a 3D scan of my MODOK pumpkin. I posted this on Facebook as well. Cheers!
https://skfb.ly/ozGJo
I can almost hear Patton Oswalt’s voice speaking through it.
Wow
So you did a 3D scan of your actual pumpkin?
Yep, Iphone 13 with Lidar.
That’s amazing!
So could you turn that into a small model that you could 3D print?
It would be cool to have a 3D model collection of each pumpkin you carve from here on out.
Yeah, any 3d model could be a candidate for printing. Alas, my older 3d printer totally burnt out after a handful of prints. But there are some interesting models in the $200 range that I may pick up for Christmas.
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.
I’m going to the local cinema to avoid it all.
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.
CP: Can’t Ignore The Train — 10,000 Maniacs
Behind the scenes of filming She-Hulk:
http://dlvr.it/Sc1cJR
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.
We decided to watch the remastered version of the 1979 movie Phantasm. It turns out, this was not a very good movie at all.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen this from start to finish. The scary evil ball is fun in my memory.
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.
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.
We had about two dozen kids last night. About the same number as pre-Covid so I guess that’s something
We ended up having 7 kids in three groups.
That’s the most since Covid so maybe things are picking up?
I think we had between 12 and 16 kids total, about average. Activity trailed off sharply after 8 PM.
We had 11 which was sharply down from previous years.
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.
Off to the city to visit the vampires this morning
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
Were they freaked out by your garlic necklace?
Bloody hell:
https://t.co/u0uysn7Tn5
Some lovely Ralph McQuarrie art as screensavers:
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/5rq7gq/i_turned_an_old_ralph_mcquarrie_concept_piece/
Looks like this is all of them:
https://imgur.com/a/TD8dq
So I guess Facebook is going to be nigh-unusable until the US election is over. Maybe I’ll get back into Twitter. Anything new over there?
Here comes the snow
I’m a bit annoyed that the WiFi coverage in the house is very good with just one node of the mesh network plugged in.
So I’m looking at the other two nodes in the box and thinking “Do I really need to use them and have I just wasted a chunk of money”.
Revenge of the Nodes.
Goodbye to
Julia Powell:
https://t.co/59IgPtKLzy
Moriarty does Shakespeare.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6CLdCl9TB0
Very nice.
Probably the best interpretation of that I have ever seen.
It’s a veritable blizzard out there and the husband will have to drive home in this. I’m not happy
I hope he can mush the dogs to get him home safely.
Hey Rhet,
I am still intrigued by your pumpkin scan.
What app did you use to do that?
I use Scaniverse, it works pretty well. Once scanned there are tools to crop down the model to the desired parts. I’ve been exporting FBX files to my Google Drive.
https://scaniverse.com/
Thanks!
I know someone with an iPhone 13 and am interested in playing with this!
I can hide away with my 3D printer in my attic laboratory this winter and try it!
https://imagen.research.google/video/
AI can create videos from text prompts now. But sadly, it’s not available to us, hte unwashed masses.
*the
https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/05/25/1052695/dark-secret-cute-ai-animal-images-dalle-openai-imagen-google/
Broken record here, but Andor has been so bloody good and episode 9 was good as well.
Hopefully tomorrow night.
Meanwhile, I’ve enjoyed the first 2 episodes of The Peripheral.
Yah:
https://t.co/447PDCaOqD
“Some rumblings that the release of this episode means there won’t be a S2”
Shows that some rumblings aren’t worth paying attention to. 😉
I’m tucking into humble pie as I type :-p
You can beat a simple sandwich, even one wrapped in pink paper:
https://t.co/TZPba6IOAV
Now I want one
Same.
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.
Fun.
At some point, I’ll see Petrucci live.
I disagree with the article premise, but the scale is mind-boggling.
https://www.metalsucks.net/2022/11/02/its-not-your-fault-nobody-cares-about-your-band-on-spotify/
WTF:
https://t.co/uMI2eYR3Qb
Modern fiberglass insulation is superior.
I thought it too was made from stray cats?
Is your house a pyramid??
Trailer for the new Avatar film has dropped:
https://youtu.be/d9MyW72ELq0
Yuck. I’m glad I don’t have to drive into work this morning. Poor hubby.
“Disney’s Live-Action HERCULES Will Be an Experimental Modern Musical Inspired by the TikTok Generation”
Everything about this statement says I won’t like this movie.
https://geektyrant.com/news/disneys-live-action-hercules-will-be-an-experimental-modern-musical-inspired-by-the-tiktok-generation
😀
Starring Urkel! Screech! Fran Drescher!
CP: World Turns — Rival Consoles
https://www.kexp.org/podcasts/song-of-the-day/2022/11/3/rival-consoles-world-turns/
Some similarity to “Bunsen Burner” from The Cuts, but still enjoyable.
Some petty great art here:
https://www.artstation.com/f-baranger
Lots of Cthulhu.
Is it petty Jack? Or just great art…
How petty of you to point out my typos! 😀
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
It’s at it’s best on ice.
I think it starts off great, but then gets way too full of itself and fairly useless when its halfway through.
It’s a little harsh, but not too bad. I’ve had worse
Funny, that’s my typical review of beers that I buy because they are associated with a band (Iron Maiden, Queen, AC/DC, etc.)
LOL Jack.
I hear it pairs well with a super model
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!
I prefer Monkey Shoulder, but Ballantine is not bad. It’s good for mixing too.
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.
Yeh, that stuff has become impossible to find around here.
It’s good to know it is still out there.
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.
Just looked at the prices, ouch!
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.
To put it in perspective a litre bottle of Bailey’s just cost me 13quid.
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..
BLASPHEMER!
😀
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.
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.
I will have to give it a try because my favorite (Angel’s Envy https://www.angelsenvy.com/us/en/product/rye-finish/) is just embarrassingly, stupid expensive.
I might have to check that out.
Since I’m allergic to smoke, I have problems with scotchs and bourbons that have a heavy smoke component. That’s what gives me the headache. You might have a “similar” problem with some kind of allergy.
Hmmmm.
Could be. Wood smoke will sometimes give me migraines
I remember trying Angel’s Envy – – that’s pretty good stuff. I didn’t realize it was a rye. Drank it when I drove my Chevy to the levee.
Curious: Has that smoke sensitivity ever affected you with bbq meats? Is it different with different woods?
No, fortunately.
There is an Angels Envy Bourbon.
Much less expensive than the Rye which is good news if it was the Bourbon that you tried.
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.
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.
The next time you’re called a Philistine:
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0d8gprs/the-bible-s-buried-secrets-david-and-goliath
That is a shame:
https://bit.ly/3h6sWHP
Oooh. Amazon says hubby’s birthday present has reached its US stop
We have the box!
W00T!
Step one of my master plan is complete
Enola Holmes 2 was every bit as delightful as the first one. A recommend from Texas.
Pencilled in to watch on Sunday.
I very much enjoyed the first so I’m in.
Have a wonderful birthday Pixie!!!
Yea Pixie!!
Happy Birthday!
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
I wonder if the Queen’s Gambit is to blame for the poplularity.
I don’t know how many eight year olds watch that show.
Might have watched it with their parents.
Perhaps he can have a bracketed Tournament.
Then Rank the players. Once a week the lowest Ranked player could be challenged by someone outside the club for that position.
Keep them on their toes.
Sounds like an opportunity to recruit some parents that can help with all those extra kids.
Surely some other folks up there know how to play chess?
The making of FTL:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/11/ten-years-of-ftl-the-making-of-an-enduring-spaceship-simulator/
If you have 2 C-64s lying around:
https://youtu.be/EBCYvoC4muc
Which is better,
2 C-64s or one C-130?
Just don’t try this with your C-4.
I C what you did there.
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.
We’ll, the cat certainly has no concept of daylight savings, she expected to be fed at what is now 3am
Saving Enola Holmes 2 for another day and watching Run Sweetheart Run on Amazon Prime.
Pretty neat genre bending slasher flick.
It’s on Amazon Prime in the UK.
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.
My November piece is a bit fluffier:
https://www.metalhalloffame.org/hats-off-to-dokken/
Cat still hasn’t adjusted to the new time.
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…
Yeah, I signed up for an account a few years back. I’m on mastodon.social but it’s very slow at the moment as the servers being overloaded with people preparing to jump ship from twitter.
From what I can gather you can follow people’s toots that people post on other servers by following them.
Anyway:
https://gizmodo.com/how-to-join-mastodon-twitter-alternative-elon-musk-1849739031#scso=_jPFlY6WcLsiliLMP9ICD0As_34:697.5238037109375
I don’t even remember if I’d tried Mastodon when it launched.
I might need to do it for book/graphic novel promotion – – I’ll make it known if I ever do.
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.
Oh look, it’s Lost Ralph’s birthday. I know we don’t see him much here anymore but, Happy Birthday!
Cheers to lost Ralph!
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.
It’s a little creepy when WordleBot says this to you: “Sensational. We are as one.”
Resistance is futile!
GRITS
GROTE
GRATE
GREAT
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
Happy birthday, LostRalph, if we find him!
I am all about this Pretty Reckless cover of the Soundgarden classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spqKJGoLZLo
Not as good as the original but damn close.
CP: Should’ve Been Me — Mitski
No lunar eclipse yet. I don’t think I’m gonna make it.
https://moon.nasa.gov/news/185/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-lunar-eclipse/
I did, in fact, get outside to see the start of it. My pic was crap, so I didn’t bother to post it.
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.
It’s cold.
I have to go to the city this afternoon.
I don’t want to.
It’s cold.
Or in 5-7-5
It is cold today
To the city I must go
No please, It is cold.
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.
At the Doc I wait
A Yearly trip to check skin
Missed cancer boat, yea!
How a weaker program can defeat the best AI Go player:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/11/new-go-playing-trick-defeats-world-class-go-ai-but-loses-to-human-amateurs/
But also, there is that exhaust port that a trained pilot can fire a missile into.
If there was a sign that today might mark the beginning of the apocalypse, this might be it. https://www.revolvermag.com/music/see-rob-halford-sing-jolene-dolly-parton-rock-hall-ceremony
They should have done Freewheel Burning.
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.
Goodbye to the lead singer of Nazareth:
https://t.co/4H7SI9dmHP
Great voice, and by all accounts, a truly sweet guy. Love Hurts. RIP
CP: Another Chorus — Violent Femmes
Unplugged from the world.
Made cookies and watched Enolia Holmes 2.
I was fun.
Well whatever happens looks like the Dog torturer Dr Oz is going to lose.
Overall, not as bad as predicted. Fingers crossed for AZ.
I did check this morning, and it’s basically 50/50 normal person vs. raving lunatic.
Sigh.
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?
I never knew this was the term for those sorts of flats:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyneside_flat
I remember those from some Monty Python skits. (I think the author of the funniest joke in the world lived in one?)
Do we know them from any other famous British shows or movies?
Get Carter I think, the original and not the Stallone remake.
CP: Supersatellite — Our Lady Peace
Hmmm:
https://t.co/Tfdez8IZqp
Netflix ‘secret’ codes:
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/netflix-secret-codes-uk-movies-tv-series-b2220993.html#Echobox=1667749078
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.
I Changed Astronomy Forever. He Won the Nobel Prize for It. | ‘Almost Famous’ by Op-Docs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDW9zKqvPJI
In case you’re wondering, it’s still cold
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.
No you shouldn’t, you choose wisely.
You didn’t go with the Disney Animated classic!?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEVUtrk8_B4
John Wick 4 trailer.
The fuckers used Seasons in the Sun, they can just fuck off with that depressive shit.
CP: A Fistful of Dollars – The Danish National Symphony Orchestra
Good choice – those folks put on some impressive performances
I especially like their fish slapping number.
CP: Thunderbirds Theme – Band of the Hampshire Constabulary
CP: Mission Impossible theme – Folsom Lake Symphony Orchestra
CP: Popcorn – Drumorg
https://drumorg.com/
CP: Tetris Theme – Games in Concert
CP: La Valse D’Amelie – Douglas Borsatti
CP: Guaglione – Perez Prado and his Orchestra
CP; William Tell Overture – Grimethorpe Colliery Band
CP: Pruned — Natalie Holt
Just so you know, because of Andor, the husband has grown to hate episodic streaming releases. He wants the next episode NOW
Understandable, for me I’m enjoying looking forward to a new episode on Wednesdays.
I’m not a fan of taking away options. Drop all of the episodes at once and let me watch them at my chosen pace.
FREEEEDDDOOOMMMMMMMM!!
We’dom!
CP: Borders — M.I.A
You’re perfectly free to do that…once they’ve all finished dropping.
Everybody wins!
So rumblings on Twitter that Kevin Conroy, the voice of the animated Batman has died at the age of 66.
I missed most of his career, but I know many have tremendous affection for him. Expect to see many calling him “the best Batman” today. RIP
I loved his work, and he seemed to be an awesome human. I will be replaying the Batman Arkham games at some point in remembrance.
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
Obviously missed my post when I saw it at the cinema :-p
You make posts about going to the cinema? ;P
I saw Oblivion, and I don’t remember thinking much of it. Maybe it would have been better with a different lead actor.
I have not seen Uncharted.
I enjoyed Oblivion, though it was far from great. I’ve avoided Uncharted. I like the games and what I saw of the trailers… *shudder* … that was nothing like the games.
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).
Maybe it’s time to go back to Scalextric:
https://uk.scalextric.com/products/scalextric-1980s-tv-back-future-vs-knight-rider-race-set-c1431m
If the Delorean really works, then please take one of these sets back to New Jersey 1985 and deliver one to my younger self.
Only temporary, but the trolling of Eli Lilly and Lockheed Martin on twitter has hit their share prices hard.
Unreal.
This has got to lead to some class action lawsuits against Musk.
His negligent actions (firing the humans in security/verification and replacing them with flawed software) cost other people a financial loss.
I do hope we’re legitimately seeing the tandem downfall of Musk and Trump, and that people are waking up to the fact that lots of money and narcissism are not reasons to idolize anyone.
Tonight’s Peripheral was intense.
The weather is almost livable today.
Have an super duper birthday ditto!
Happy Birthday Ditto!
Happy Happy Joy Joy
To ditto!
Happy birthday, ditto!
Thanks everyone!
So back in 2018, somebody did a short film adaption of The Nine Billion Names of God by ACC:
https://youtu.be/UtvS9UXTsPI
Hmmm
Oh Canada:
https://t.co/H4gqfqNZd1
https://www.cnet.com/culture/ai-drew-this-gorgeous-comic-series-but-youd-never-know-it/ Fascinating
Hmmm:
https://t.co/CdAbW4WDmJ
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.
Best line of review:
” It’s like in its own phylum of movie type or something. Like a platypus.”
Why thank you, Safeway automated checkout, for the very flattering photo of the top of my head. Greatly appreciated.
It was an unflattering view on a shops CCTV camera that put me on the path to shaving my head.
Morning Deadpan
Yeah, that’s it.
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.
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.
This is great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPdLLRi_Vnc
She looks like a grown up Orphan Annie
And in less edgy news, the world’s oldest land animal is 190:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/at-190-jonathan-the-tortoise-is-the-worlds-oldest-living-land-animal-180979514/
Jonathan has seen some shit.
I hope he talks like Yoda
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..”
Well, looks like Biden just secured his 2nd Term…
https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-set-to-announce-2024-presidential-bid-11668508202?st=zfh19gv6bgvr8wn&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Great. We’ll have a 108-year old president.*
*still preferable to that orange traitor.
On Quora someone posted that Biden was like a well-done steak, not optimal, but fully edible. Unlike Trump who was like maggot-covered rotting meat.
The global population apparently just hit 8 billion people. Is it getting crowded in here?
It was crowded at half that.
I will be productive today. I will be productive today. I will be…
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.
I hate my mother.
That is all.
I will resist asking what she has done now,
Hugs. Sorry. 🙁
I’m sorry she’s frustrating you. Hoping for better relations in the future.
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!
Well only one more episode of Andor to go, looking forward to next weeks finale.
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.
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.
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.
Well, first season is the gold standard. And over-all through season 4 is pretty good. There are some bits that really feel like Python to me. My daughter can resite the entire script of this episode from memory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68h8-ESTY6o
“That’s not a circle, that’s an oval.” Still cracks me up.
The quest this weekend is to upgrade my iPhone to an iPhone 14 Pro Max, with the shortages due to problems in China it is not looking good.
So after checking all week the phone was back in stock at 9pm on a Saturday night, where is the logic in that?
CP: Trust Me — Jesus Jones
You can fuck off with that shit:
https://comicbook.com/horror/news/escape-from-new-york-sequel-rumor-radio-silence-scream-kurt-russell-john-carpenter/
Reading only the link – – I’d be in if Carpenter and Russell were fully invested in making something worthy. Otherwise, yes, fuck off with that shit.
I’ll probably still watch it, even if it is a steaming pile.
Well that is not a usual setting:
https://t.co/06X9kvQWl2
Well the new Black Panther film was ok but not as good as the first.
https://boingboing.net/2022/11/18/the-trailer-for-pixars-elemental-is-finally-here.html
Good trailer.
I’ve been an avid reader of Tom Breihan’s for a few years, and I’ve really enjoyed the “Number Ones” column, but damn, the early 2000s have been dreadfully uninteresting.
https://www.stereogum.com/category/columns/the-number-ones/
“Hey Ya” is the first song in awhile that I care about at all.
Embracing the reality of ‘cheating’ with computer programs when playing correspondence chess:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/crosswords/correspondence-chess.html
Illusions shattered:
https://t.co/MhaEhp5wSI
Not sure mine are shattered. As the years went by I noticed that all of his charactures had a smart-ass, abrasive bent to them and felt that it must have been part of him.
That being said… IMHO he is not wrong about the median quality of SNL.
[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.
Dangit. I did that last year, too. Pretend all the square brackets are pointy brackets. :silly:
I know a few sites that use that particular formatting style. No worries.
Count me in. I’ll check with TCat.
I’m sure that Tiffany and I will be in, but we’ll make it official. Sorry to hear about the Facebook hack, Amy. That is truly truly awful.
But – – thank you for taking this on every year!!!
I’m in.
Being hacked sucks 🙁
I’m in.
I’ll post something on the FB page
Posted!
I also sent you an email about this a week or so ago but I think I only had your old email address. I’ll update my data and make sure all info is sent to the new one.
Thank you!! Yeah, the Yahoo Mail address is the one I use for Gravatar, signing up for things I don’t care about too much, and spam, and that’s about it. Stuff I’m focused on goes to Gmail now. 🙂
I’m in this year
“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.
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.
We watched this awhile ago and quite liked it.
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.
https://file770.com/greg-bear-1951-2022/
I’ve read a bit more. The “Forge of God” series was excellent. His stories were a bit hit-and-miss for me, but like you, I appreciated his world building.
I met him a loooong time ago when his son was quite young. Greg was quite nice. At the time, his son was less so.
Goodbye to Greg Bear:
https://t.co/iQaR5ruG6S
Haven’t read much of his stuff but did enjoy Eon.
Another day another mass shooting:
https://t.co/juKXZE6pYF
Websites that belong to the 10K club:
https://10kbclub.com/
This is a weirdly specific and almost stupid club. The only saving grace is rule #5 listed on that page.
It does seem a little arbitrary, but still kinda neat. Keeping your stuff down to low KB size feels like a throwback to a forgotten age.
The guy who played Green Power Ranger in the 90s has died:
https://t.co/NhBjVI5nqy
I was tody years old when I learned that gabagool is actually capicola.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-capicola-became-gabagool-the-italian-new-jersey-accent-explained
Today years old, even. . .
And now, for a sort-of opposing view:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/11/14/1136186819/cultivated-cultured-meat-heathy-climate-change
“Soylent green… IT’S PEOPLE!”
I was a linguistics minor in my undergraduate days so I really enjoyed that article.
Morning Pan
Having brunch with a friend later this morning.
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.
You know going to be a rebel and turn off the screen always on function of the phone.
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.
So we’ve hit the historical era where all of the megaego zillionaires have just fully embraced their villainy.
https://www.stereogum.com/2206461/live-nation-on-taylor-swift-ticket-debacle-shes-the-problem-its-her/news/
We can joke about guillotines, but they own all the guillotines.
Ticketmaster should have been broken up eons ago.
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.
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 hope you packed a lunch before you headed of on that journey.
Currently in Boulder to spend Thanksgiving with my eldest.
Gorgeous out here. Though the mood is a bit somber.
Great humans doing their best to be happy, in spite of the worst of humanity.
I think that’s the slogan of our times.
Any “Sport-os” in the room? (Random Ferris Bueller reference)
USA plays in the World Cup in a little while.
VS Wales
Completely sailed over my crossbar.
Watch the latest Last Week with John Oliver about how fucked up this years World Cup is.
I’m giving it a miss, in respect to those dead workers.
You are correct about the Qatar shenanigans. Seems like pretty much everyone in FIFA that was involved in giving them the cup has now been convicted of taking bribes.
Best was last week when, in a total middle finger to the Football fanbase, Qatar announces there would be NO alcohol sales.
Nice. You vault to the lead.
Here is your homework though-
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qEGMse-VCgs
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.
Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal!!!!!!
In other news, we’re back on the moon today! sort of.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63697714
We’ve really made the grade.
… but planet earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do.
How times change:
https://t.co/ouERysx5kn
The Commodordian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBCYvoC4muc
In a just world, this guy would get more groupies than Def Leppard and Motley Crue combined.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g7BSnavHH8
It came out a month ago, but sounds like 1970s AM gold.
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.
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.
Good luck!
Oh, this is a good thing!
So it could be great or it could be utter shite:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/harrison-ford-de-aged-indy-5-1235267513/?fbclid=IwAR35nKL4mfNxSRpz69x7TrvqEi7TBKhGdpjCGNb0mkqybhpAzHd-wOukVD4
But will they de-age Shia Labeouf? Also, it’s been 14 years since Crystal Skull? Dang.
Maybe they can digitally remove the entirety of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
FTW
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.
I still have my video plus if you’d like it.
FFS!
US shooting: Man kills up to 10 in Virginia Walmart store https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63724716
FFS, America.
Hmmm:
https://www.daily-stuff.com/the-chronicles-of-casting-fumbles-fudge-ups-and-failures/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=1666&utm_campaign=ix7y5&utm_term=18ce55i8e20_o9met_ockys&utm_content=%5B1666%5Dgallery@casting_fumbles_lt1tw_200622@liort_ynp,4.0cn%5B221121131203891x0%5D
Wilko Johnson: Dr Feelgood guitarist dies, aged 75 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63728503
So Andor season finale put to bed…goodness the journey has been great. Think I’m going to rewatch the entire series.
I hope we’ll get a chance to watch tonight.
https://www.cbr.com/andor-the-last-jedi-disney-star-wars-best/
Spoilers in the article (I encountered some and skipped, so I’m not sure if it spoils the Andor finale).
Just watched the finale. Did you catch the post credit scene?
That’s no moon!
I imagine that none of you have seen Bluey, which is the big kid show of the day. It truly is super charming. Super strange to see humans speaking those voices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=rpq8eHsHvFc&fbclid=IwAR2RI3BOAv2FBtbNox_GNH0qD4qt3J6USWsoYC7Wub1zob5lG7Zaf9qrnoI
Is it wrong of me to be upset with my parents for not giving me an Australian accent?
That’s not a knoife.
Well at least he wasn’t gay (my eyes want to roll out of my sockets):
https://www.thedailybeast.com/aaron-brink-pornstar-dad-of-colorado-club-q-shooting-suspect-anderson-lee-aldrich-spews-homophobia?source=twitter&via=desktop
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.
On a happier note, I enjoyed the first episode of Wednesday on Netflix.
Morning Pan
Lunch with my Boo today.
Happy Thanksgiving US panites
And a fabulous Thursday to everyone else!
Happy Thanksgiving to those ‘Mercian’s here in Deadpan Land
Hubby’s school had a 30% absentee rate yesterday. I’m sure glad the pandemic is over
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.
So she was racing with her bf and killed two kids and we are suppose to feel sorry for her:
https://www.lamag.com/article/exclusive-rebecca-grossman-speaks-out-ahead-of-murder-trial/
First I’ve heard of this. Uncomfortably close to the plot of Bonfire of the Vanities.
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.
I hope everyone enjoyed their Thursday. And I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving, if they celebrated!
Really, it couldn’t have been worse than Bugsgiving: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/bug-banquet-eating-insects
Andor as a 70s tv movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Pccq0DZVc
This is great!
Part of the reason I though Robert Harris’s Fatherland was a bit shit, the Nazi’s would have been proud of the genocide they committed:
https://t.co/uvVMa1fpVF
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.
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.
So there are rumours another Dredd film is in development with Karl Urban attached.
Fingers crossed and all that.
She was impressive as the demon in Supernatural:
https://t.co/BTca1S7Yq3
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
Rhettro said he was in on FB.
Yeah, just Rhett and Jack on FB. Before you assign, you should DM CJ, She usually likes to be in but often forgets to check the feeds.
Thanks much, Bunny and Van! I will get in touch with CJ, as well as a few other past participants whom I haven’t heard from lately. I will get back to you with assignments as soon as I can.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tony-gilroy-teases-andor-season-192251597.html
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.
The answer to “What is a proton made of?” Is more complicated than you might think:
https://t.co/gDyBvyTOgp
I could watch this all day:
https://youtu.be/CzlxEIMuNEk
Goodbye to Irene Cara:
https://amp.theguardian.com/film/2022/nov/26/fame-and-flashdance-singer-and-actor-irene-cara-dies-aged-63
Behold the literature clock:
https://literature-clock.jenevoldsen.com/
So started a rewatch of Andor.
Watching episode 1 and admiring the sets.
Criticism of that Died Suddenly documentary that you may be tempted to watch:
https://t.co/Pq4s5ZqXrH
I’m calling it. Spider-Man has officially jumped the shark
https://geektyrant.com/news/spider-man-and-eminem-face-off-in-a-rap-battle-on-amazing-spider-man-variant-cover-art
It’s just a variant cover.
*shrug*
People should remember this when they complain that “She-Hulk twerking with a current pop star isn’t in the spirit of the comics.”
Some of these complaints just leave me shaking my head.
That’s not what you’re supposed to shake when you twerk.
Humanoid robots that actually work well are still a long way off:
https://t.co/iv8Ix7IEbi
A review of that Scalextric set mentioned earlier:
https://youtu.be/LOS26h3S_0I
Morning Pan
Windy, cold, and snowy over night.
Cyber Monday board games.
https://www.polygon.com/deals/2022/11/28/23473347/amazon-cyber-monday-board-game-sale-gloomhaven-catan-descent-arkham-horror-pandemic
The bedrooms have been vacuumed. I’m sure that’s exciting for someone.
I do love TZ, but I admit that I have probably only seen half of the episodes. Maybe less. I’d never heard of this one.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-twilight-zone-episode-that-was-banned-for-decades/ar-AA14CrCh?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=364f2e78ad334334b1f37defb0e010ce
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 think you have covered my entire knowledge base.
Mullaney was my newest one. I find him really funny.
Chris Hardwick
April Richardson
Ron Funches
Nicki Glaser
Paul F Tompkins
Whitney Cummings
Basically, anyone who was on @midnight.
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’.
Morons even.
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.
CP: Stitches — Orgy
I never found Dane Cook funny, Carrot Top either.
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.
That’s my take as well.
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.
My web designer seems to have ghosted me. This is especially bad since she is also my daughter
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.
Connecting the dots:
https://t.co/X8XPqeEGev
Brr
We are now living in a Transmetropolitan comic. Actual headline:
Axl Rose Says Leave Your Drones At Home
Far away, drones shoot pictures from far away.
https://www.theonion.com/bowl-of-soup-brings-man-s-lifetime-carrot-total-to-11-1849828055
The end of Sears
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/29/business/sears-last-christmas/index.html
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.
Agreed.
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.
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.
I think it was the tunnel I painted on the wall that fooled the coyote into going the wrong way.
You were smart not to step forward onto the giant “X” painted on the sidewalk.
*it didn’t. . .
*
This is why I don’t do serious writing on a phone.
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!”
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.
Four loads of laundry today. Another reason to hate winter
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.
https://www.loudersound.com/features/every-iron-maiden-album-ranked-from-worst-to-best
“Piece of Mind” should rank higher and “Virtual XI” and “X Factor” should be uncontested for last place, but overall, I agree with this ranking.
I’d change quite a bit in my list, but Iron Maiden album rankings seem to vary wildly between fans, writers, critics, etc.
Agreed that Virtual XI and The X-Factor should be the bottom of the pile.
CP: Groovy Xmas — The Linda Lindas
The Avatar sequel, but without a budget.
https://www.reddit.com/r/blender/comments/z8j0nu/avatar_the_way_of_water_but_no_budget/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Cool.
Now I don’t have to see the movie.
Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac singer-songwriter, dies aged 79 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63812952
I didn’t realize she was 79. Possibly the most low-key, under-appreciated of the four of them. RIP.
Agreed, RIP.
The Cocaine Bear movie trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwZKvV5hvYE
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.
Enjoyed the first episode.
Still brr
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.
Well they might be expensive … but at least the reliability and service is crap.
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.
Tribute to Jerry Lawson, father of the video cartridge on Google today.
My Boo may be a schmo sometimes, but she does good work
ryah.thehobobox.com
Nice-looking website! Good job, boo.
Is it officially live yet?
Yeah. It’s live. A friend is even going to put it in his January newsletter
Welp, I need to head to the city in the brrr. I’m not happy.
Holy crap, it’s December.
https://news.ansible.uk/a425.html
The fog between Airdrie and Calgary was insane. I hope it clears when it’s time for me to go back
I hope you got home safely, Bunny!
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”.
Blaze seems to have a bunch of solo albums. I don’t think I’ll commit to the entire catalogue. Not just yet. I have added Silicon Messiah to an upcoming playlist.
No need to commit to the entire catalog. LOL
In less Metal news, Ann Wilson (of Heart) has a 2022 album with a mix of covers and new originals.
Including this phenomenal take on “Bridge of Sighs” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afNUiifM2lA&list=PL8vjEFmvrnNRA30P5TpMfE55vj3vUKZrZ&index=3
Dare we hope?!?
The Indy 5 trailer is fantastic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfVYgWYaHmE
My fingers are crossed, I would add that the trailer for Crystal Skull looked cool at the time, anyway io9 broke down the trailer:
http://dlvr.it/Sdj14M
From ditto’s FB feed:
Frozen Internationale:
https://twitter.com/JamesL1927/status/1596898354570694656
Against lists:
https://t.co/uX9QU4cDXm
Looks like SOMEbody’s film, didn’t make the list.
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! 🙂
Thank you Amy.
You’re very welcome! 🙂
Kitty goes to the vet today. I’m sure she will be quite impressed
-30C with the wind chill right now. I think I’ll just relax in front of the fireplace for now
egads. I hope Kitty kept warm. Oh, and you too, of course.
The Google Doodle for today has quite a bit going on. Could probably waste a few hours with it for sure.
Cool! I don’t think I recall his name, but he definitely had a giant impact on my childhood.
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?)
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.
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.
Hugs Bunny. That’s a lot of emotion to work through, especially around the holidays.
What Rhett said.
Sorry you have to carry all of that. I can only send best wishes to you and yours through this difficult stuff.
Well the season 1 finale of the Peripheral was rather incomprehensible.
Hopefully it will get a S2.
Plan on watching it tonight. I doubt it can be as unfocused as 1899.
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.
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.
The last paragraph is the zinger:
https://bit.ly/3inFpHU
Female Krampus was a thing it seems:
https://t.co/qAdQbMfeqQ
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.
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.
Well dpss gift ordered, delivery window is 18 to 55 days , so you could get it after Xmas.
Well dpss gift ordered, delivery window is 18 to 55 days , so you could get it after Xmas.
I don’t know who that Vananonde guy is, looks fishy.
Watched the movie Smile yesterday. It was good. If you like those kinds of movies, I’d recommend it
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!
Oo, What board game?
My DPSS recipient should get theirs this week.
Wacky Racers (the old Hanna-Barbera cartoon with Dirk Dastardly and Muttley).
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.
Well that is vague enough that I can only guess it’s definitely not William Gibson.
Oops, my reply last night didn’t go through.
I’d never bag on saint Gibson.
A little slice of history:
https://t.co/Tx7EApX9dg
Goodbye to Bob McGrath:
https://variety.com/2022/tv/obituaries-people-news/bob-mcgrath-dead-sesame-street-1235449775/
I honestly had no idea he was on the show for so long.
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.
Welp. My grandmother did pass away yesterday. Nobody’s surprised but It’s still sad.
There won’t be any memorial as, pretty much everybody she knew is no longer alive.
Sad news, condolences on your loss.
Sorry to here this for you and your family.
Best wishes as you forge through this.
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.
Sorry for your family’s loss, Bunny. 105 is a rare accomplishment.
Sorry Bunny. A death in the family is always tough regardless of the circumstances.
Our condolences
https://www.stereogum.com/2207349/jack-white-to-elon-musk-hows-that-free-speech-thing-working-out/news/
I always avoid posting “Celebrity yells at other celebrity” and I’ve mostly been to the Musk chatter. . . . so this will be the rare exception. Bravo, Jack White.
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.
It was a blast! Thanks Jack.
CP: What’s My Name? — MIYAVI
Wow! I wish they’d done the full thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLWkl5YpiD0
Wow, it’s goodbye to Kirstie Alley:
https://variety.com/2022/tv/obituaries-people-news/kirstie-alley-dead-cheers-look-whos-talking-1235451006/
I know she’s better known for her roles like Cheers, but she’ll always be Lt. Saavik to me.
Farwell, Lt.
I wish she could have stayed with the Savvik role.
RIP
She was high up in Scientology who promise that they become immune to cancer.
Go figure..
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. . .
Welcome to the ROP rocked club.
I was not as versed in the lore as the husband but I still found the show kind of meh.
Sorry.
IIRC, hubby is a Tolkien scholar? And did you say he was also disappointed?
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.
DPSS gift is officially in the mail
https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/captioned-smart-glasses-let-deaf-people-see-rewind-conversations/
Fantastic! A huge win.
David Sedaris – Six to Eight Black Men:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEJto6kN6Qo
My god, this is funny.
David Sedaris is a favorite. I definitely listen to this one every xmas season.
I like this version of It’s A Wonderful Life:
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/its-a-wonderful-life-if-the-minimum-wage-was-raised-alongside-inflation
Love it. They still need to put a beatdown on Mr. Potter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw89o0afb2A
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.
CP: Old Friends (Hummed) — Darren Korb
Rewatched Coco tonight. This time in Dolby Atmos and Vision.
Rewatched Coco tonight. This time in Dolby Atmos and Vision.
Tom Waits is 73 today!! I’ll buy the piano a drink.
When you check a magazine subscription thinking it had ended and find out you still have six issues to get..WTF!
Magazine subscriptions, I remember those.
Still waiting on my magerzines from Jimmy in Denver.
Variations on the same song, this one doesn’t even sound like Dylan to me:
https://youtu.be/a8qE6WQmNus
The original by Mitch Miller:
https://youtu.be/k1vf1DYJphA
Tommy Steele version that was a minor hit:
https://youtu.be/YnNduyIP7GE
Are you sure this wasn’t John Lydon? Bloimey, wot an accent.
Stick it in the family album:
https://youtu.be/KCP0-XfbyRU
Morning Pan
Tonight we’re going to a dinner theatre for a Christmas party
I haven’t done either one of those since before the world ended.
Apparently mom’s FB page got suspended (not sure if it’s temporary or permanent) for spreading Covid misinformation. Seriously, how are we related?
Ugh. Is she a denier?
She’s vaxxed. But she still believes in some of the other stupid stuff.
Frankly, I’m surprised she wasn’t suspended earlier on some of her other silliness.
Honest trailer for Andor:
https://youtu.be/b6_5fjY54oQ
Wonder Woman 3 has been cancelled:
https://gizmodo.com/wonder-woman-3-dead-cancel-warner-bros-dc-patty-jenkins-1849866873
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)
https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/when-did-original-star-wars-become-a-new-hope/
There is going to be a Hades 2:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/hades-2-revealed-at-the-game-awards-2022-e2-80-93-early-access-news-next-year/ar-AA154AAp
Going to bed at 11:30 when you get up at four is not something I recommend.
New hangout place:
http://jackmangan.com/forge/