At least this one might actually arrive at some point unlike the ominous silence from the makers of Play date.
We watched, and enjoyed Army of Thieves last night. I know it’s supposed to be a prequel to Army of the Dead, but it wasn’t a zombie movie at all. If you like heist movies, I’d recommend it
I too have seen that one. At the time I didn’t even know it was zombie related.
It’s fun.
I preferred Army of Thieves and was disappointed that Army of the Dead didn’t continue with the characters. Also, that final vault was so disappointing after the designs in Thieves.
I was going to get a hair cut today but, at -26 (-34 with the wind chill) I have decided it’s too cold to leave the house
You could just wet your hair and use a hammer, at those temps.
I too have an appointment for a haircut today.
Anyone else?
One of us
one of us
one of us
No, for obvious reasons.
An appointment….for a …. haircut?
Can’t say as I’ve ever had such a thing.
I usually wake up one day, see myself in the mirror and go “Damn, I need a haircut”…then head out and get one.
Happy Twosday. 2-22-22
Goodbye to the guy who played Gehn in the Myst sequel:
That was…a whole lot of words that didn’t really say anything.
Jesus fuck Ed you read all that!?
Ed is doing penance for things he can’t admitt to …
Otherwise we would all be dissapeared.
Thank you Ed.
It’s a response to gatekeepers saying you aren’t a true fan of a certain genre if you haven’t read the ‘classics’.
I get that he was trying to say that….but I don’t think he succeeded per se. If anything, it came across as more of a general dismissal of SF as not “real literature” hence, no canon.
This new Oceans of Slumber song is just beautiful.
Even though it’s still stupid cold today, I decided to chop my locks anyway.
Ok, now Steam isn’t even pretending. At least with some, the titles are more obscure to the game theme. But when “Elf Wives Cheat to Ride My Meat” is recommended, you know they have given up trying.
Drow?
It got a little weird when those elf wives started getting into orcs.
CP: Dive For You — BOOM BOOM SATELLITES
CW: All Our Yesterdays – ST:TOS
You know S3 gets a lot of stick but this is a cracking episode.
Yes I did read the sequels by A C Crispin
I thought the makers of Futurama were silly for announcing a new season without having John DiMaggio fully onboard first (thereby giving him a lot of power of negotiation). This whopper makes that seem like a minor faux pas.
What if Chris Pine will be busy shooting Wonder Woman 3?
Props for attributing the animation style to Tex Avery as he is one of the all time greats. But I think they drop the ball (most likely intentionally) on attributing much of the interactive idea to the Dragon’s Lair video game. If you watch the preview the concept looks like most of the “hour and a half of animation” is the cat dying because you answered a trivia question wrong (muck like most of the Don Bluth animation in Dragon’s Lair is Dirk dying over and over because you chose the wrong direction or didn’t time your response correctly).
I wish there were anyway to confirm these stories. Or maybe not, because for every one story that might be fabricated you know there will be many many who die in anonimity doing horrifically brave things.
I read another about a solder who stopped an advancing Russian tank Collum by running onto the bridge and setting off the demolition charges while on the bridge.
When this finally ends, Putin should be arrested and prosecuted.
Hard to tell, the Snake Island lot may have actually surrended (even the Ukrainians admitting that), if so good for them.
On a lighter note. . . .
TIL: All of the spaceships on the Boston album covers are actually spaceships.
I should have checked these more closely when I was younger, but oh well. Don’t look back.
What are you talking about man? They are guitars that look like alien spaceships.
Yeh, I’ve got more then a fealing that can’t be right.
Well I see it now!
Part of the reason the Atari Lynx failed was it’s shitty battery life, so nothing new here then :
When I agreed to be on the board for the CDN SF Hall of Fame, nobody told me there would be so much homework.
so. much. research
William Shatner was born in Montreal in 1931, if that helps.
Leonard Nimoy died this day in 2015:
Leonard Nemoy doesn’t qualify. He isn’t Canadian
Neil Peart: Born September 12, 1952 in Hamilton. He should count as he’s written a metric asston of sci-fi themed songs.
He’s co-author on the “Clockwork Angels” books with Kevin J Anderson!
Yesterday was my busiest day in years.
RenFaire all day. Huzzah! It was as crowded as the worst day I’d ever seen at Disneyland. All outdoors, except the mermaid exhibit, and they required masks and social distancing in there. The girls had fun.
I did feel for the regulars. (The NY RenFaire was briefly a big deal for me, many eons ago.) The hordes of mundanes (including us) must have been rough.
And then a Bruce Dickinson spoken word show at night. Which was great (although Henry Rollins does it better).
So two big events with big crowds in one day. The numbers and official guidelines say I’m good (because I’m boosted) – – it just feels weird.
Had a beer with a buddy tonight. He and his wife are friends with a family that lives in the Ukraine between the airfield the antonov was in and a fighter base.
My friend is trying to get the paperwork through to get that family’s daughter out, to come live with them. The dad is undergoing treatment for cancer and can’t leave. His wife will stay there with him.
There really aren’t words. Or maybe it is all the words. Either way-
Fuck Putin.
I am glad that I’m not the only one who hates the Amazonification of Comixology. Even Patton Oswalt has chimed in.
(I realize where this fits in the grand scheme of things to be upset about)
I’m pretty unhappy about it.
One thing missing in the article and other complaints is that you can no longer backup purchases. That used to allow you to download a .cbz or .pdf of many titles. Obviously that isn’t in line with Amazon’s stance that you don’t own your purchases, so it is gone with this upgrade.
I’ve heard and agree with this complaint too. I’m shocked Amazon has never had a major competitor rise up on that platform: “If you buy it, you own it. We won’t take it away from you.”
Looks like the new Batman movie is getting generally favorable reviews. At 3 hours though, I’d rather watch it at home than in a theatre. I guess I’ll be waiting for streaming options to check it out.
Holy strained bladder, Batman!
Yeah, as promising as it looks, I think I’m likely to wait for the home theater on this one as well. I may go out for Multiverse of Madness.
I’m on holiday next week so will probably go and see it at the cinema.
I’ll continually watch films at home no matter what.
Marc Maron: Did you see Power of the Dog, did you see that movie?
Sam Elliott: Yeah do you wanna talk about that piece of shit?
Marc: [ohh noo] You didn’t like that one?
Sam: Fuck no.
Morning Pan
I think kitty has a sore tooth. I’m going to call the vet this morning and see if I can get her in.
Had this conversation the other night. For all of the mental deficiencies in the US and Soviet leaders of the 80s, in hindsight, they were pretty clearly never going to just go off half-cocked and push the button.
Recent US and Russian leadership? Yeah, I don’t have the same confidence.
But what are ya gonna do?
In the book Dead Hand, there is a story about Brezhnev watching an exercise for a nuclear launch where he had to press a button that was not actually linked to missiles launching.
Brezhnev was nervous it would lead to an actual
launch so the Generals had to keep telling him
It was fine to press the button…
Yeah. For many of those leaders and generals, up until the 80s, they had actual exposure to war and its consequences. Now… not so much.
When working on a collection of short stories, you can sure tell the American authors from any of the others. They are the ones missing u’s in their words as well as spelling words er instead of re
This just means extra work for me as I fix them all.
Those fuckres
The soundtrack for a spy movie that does not exist:
First real concert in years. According to the CDC and the experts and the observations from the medical professionals in my life, I’m good.
Volbeat/Ghost co-headlining. Unfortunately, Volbeat didn’t close the show, so I had to hear their entire set. Eh, they were fine. Ghost, however, put on an amazing performance. It was good to be back.
Wear your N95 and increase the odds in your favor.
Their argument = concerts and sporting events work by having you pay extra for better seats and more popular bands/teams, therefore we should be able to do the same thing with movies.
The problem (IMHO) = if all other theaters don’t take the same approach people will just go to see a more popular movie in a great seat at a different theater for less money.
Another point here.
If the theatre charges me more for a “better” seat, in my mind they have just accepted responsibility for a “better” experience.
If someone nearby is talking or carrying on, I will be asking for a refund.
Also, f$&@ that.
I will wait and watch it at home with my own cocktail, snacks, bathroom.
Theatres are correct in thinking that they need to evolve … but making the experience WORSE (in this case financially) is not the direction to head in.
“Theatres are correct in thinking that they need to evolve … but making the experience WORSE (in this case financially) is not the direction to head in.”
The home experience is pretty amazing right now. What can a theatre offer to sweeten the deal other than (manufactured) early access?
There strengths I can think of are-
-Early release.
-BIG screen.
-Rich surround sound.
-Seating for a LARGE group of your friends.
Somehow they need to leverage that.
Maybe some sort of “box seating” for you and your pals?
I don’t know what else they can do.
And all this after everyone thinking that theaters were not going to survive COVID. I don’t understand the reasoning behind the super rapid transition from what can we do to get more people into the theaters to the power move they are trying now. Maybe back when theaters were still really popular. But not now when they are struggling just to get anyone to go.
I’m curious about the market research that led to this. Was it based on consumer polls or just speculation? Was there a trial run somewhere?
(I didn’t read the article end-to-end, so forgive me if it’s in there)
Excellent point. They claim that they’ve been doing it in Europe for many years. The article also said that they will be rolling this out slowly so I imagine that equates to the Batman movie being their trial run.
Well it will be a dark night before I participate in that!
I need more info, but it looks like the torches and pitchforks for Sam Elliott may be a little bit premature.
I only know what’s here and in a handful of the comments. Sure, I cringe at some of his words, but I don’t get the sense that he’s going full Pence. Or even half-Pence. According to one commenter, he also praised “Brokeback Mountain” and past Jane Campion films. So maybe he just has a huge beef with this “Power of the Dog” movie?
I know nothing about who knows who in the whole SF/F author realm…but has Scalzi never heard of Scott Sigler? While obviously not Kickstarter per se, seems he’s mostly made his career out of that kind of publishing model.
I’m sure he has, but he was answering a different question, imo.
This makes me want to see it. I’ll wait for streaming though.
Crap joke for the day:
Why couldn’t the dwarves renew their lease on the Lonely Mountain?
It failed the Smaug test.
Tell crap jokes and smash the plates.
That’s what Bilbo Baggins hates!
Sometimes work is all whiskey and cheesecake.
Sometimes it all be like Bam! Lulled you in a false sense of security. We’re gonna make you hate your life.
Then sometimes, like today, it falls somewhere in between.
At least you can put whiskey and cheesecake on your resume.
Just let it dry first.
Ranker might be the worst of the worst for clickbait, but I found some of these interesting:
And this is exactly the kind of completely fucking stupid idea I would expect from that jackass.
Anytime I see a post about Hannity I feal Blige to post the following information. This allows the reader some perspective about puting any weight behind anything he says.
Here is Hannity’s Resume:
-private High School. Now closed.
-House Painter in Ca.
-Unemployed House Painter.
-Hate Radio, talk show host in Al.
-Fox TV Show Host
-trump policy Advisor
That’s it.
No college. Not even continuing Education Economic or History Classes.
A brand new gaming store in Scottsdale. I went in to check it out last weekend.
The place was packed! – – but it was about 70 dudes playing Warhammer at 10 different tables, with one table dedicated to Magic: The Gathering.
There was one corner with a small selection of tabletop games, but otherwise, almost their entire inventory was dedicated to Warhammer and other games like that.
Is this the future of nerdy tabletop gaming?
Meanwhile, AZ Game Depot, one of the better gaming stores in town, is closing down. Apparently it’s owner retirement, so at least their story ends happily.
Now the only good one left (that I know of) is Imperial Outpost, over on Rhett’s side of town.
Yeah, Imperial is still going strong. There is a newer, but smaller game store by the Stadiums that seems pretty cool. Goat Games or something.
That’s been about what I’ve seen in the gaming stores in Orlando. I used to belong to a group that played table top games every other Saturday. Every time we tried playing in a gaming store it was us in a back room and metric asston of Warhammer people.
The Gizmoplex is mostly a rebranding of the old MST3K site at this point. There should be the first episode of the new season (Santo in the Treasure of Dracula) in week or two. I’m at a kickstarter pledge level where I’ve seen the episode and had a tour of what the Gizmoplex is going to look like when they get it fully ramped up in May or so. It will be pretty cool and there will be ways to have group watch parties. BTW, they really changed up the intro quite a bit and the feel is a bit different as they were forced to transition to really small sets with greenscreens.
Speaking of hokey terribleness. . . 3 eps into TOS S3. Paradise Syndrome is playing right now. Kirk loses his memory and a Native American tribe on another planet think he’s a god.
As bad as Spock’s Brain was, it’s a thousand times better than this one.
S3, E2: The Enterprise Incident, was actually pretty excellent.
IMO – if his military collapses and all he has left is lobbing Nukes… we’re in for an even worse time.
This only ends well with regime change.
On that note- Zelenskiy is claiming that the last 3 death attempts to send death squads to get him, were thwarted by direct Intel from within the Russian FSB.
If true, this gives hope that Putin could soon meet with an “accident”.
Shows what they know
Even before I’d started this TOS full watch, I’d thought that “And the Children Shall Lead” was the all-time worst episode. I still have most of S3 to go, but after rewatching, I think it’s going to keep that title. “Spock’s Brain” is The Godfather, in comparison.
It’s unfortunate that one can’t temporarily forget all they have seen AFTER these were made. I think it would soften the perception of them.
I sheilded my young ones from seeing any sci-fi until I felt they were old enough to watch/ grasp TOS. They were in elementary school.
Then we did what Jack is doing and watching it through their eyes was magical.
With nothing to compare it to, they took it for what it was and not for what it wasn’t or what it could be.
I guess we can never really go back.
Goodbye to Mitchell Ryan, he played Minnie Driver’s Dad in Grosse Pointe Blank:
For a second I read that as “Michelle” Ryan and Im like WTF!
Happy birthday, Lo Pan!
A super happy birthday you god wanna be you!
Happy Lo Birthday!
JW: No Exit
On Hulu in the US, Disney+ outside, a not too shabby crime thriller.
David Gilmour is 76 today!
Hey longevity scientists, how’s that immortality serum coming along?
Cheers all! Appreciate it
Crap joke for the day:
A defendant was on trial for murder. There was strong evidence indicating guilt, but there was no corpse. In the defense’s closing statement the lawyer, knowing that his client would probably be convicted, resorted to a trick.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I have a surprise for you all,” the lawyer said as he looked at his watch. “Within one minute, the person presumed dead in this case will walk into this courtroom.” He looked toward the courtroom door. The jurors, somewhat stunned, all looked on eagerly. A minute passed.
Nothing happened.
Finally the lawyer said, “Actually, I made up the previous statement. But you all looked on with anticipation. I therefore put to you that you have a reasonable doubt in this case as to whether anyone was killed and insist that you return a verdict of not guilty.”
The jury, clearly confused, retired to deliberate. A few minutes later, the jury returned and pronounced a verdict of guilty.
“But how?” inquired the lawyer. “You must have had some doubt; I saw all of you stare at the door.”
The jury foreman replied: “Oh, we did look, but your client didn’t.”
(I haven’t listened. Two hours and nineteen minutes!)
We watched West Side Story on the weekend. Usually I’m a fan of musicals but this one just didn’t click for me. It had all the elements. Beautiful set. Music. Dance numbers. but still…
John said he didn’t really feel any chemistry between the two main actors. Maybe that’s it. *shrug*
That guy was great in Baby Driver and like a plank of wood in WSS.
Interesting. We had a good VRBO experience, but we’ve only done it the one time. There are definitely still some advantages over hotels, but good points are made.
I had a good experience with them some years back. I get the sense that was early in the game though and those who participated were people who were listing properties that were already short time rentals and the owners were actually “professional” about it.
Now it seems over run with grifters and those who have no intention(or ability) of providing a good experience. They are just trying to grab some of that cash.
JW: The Batman
Agree about it being overlong, but thought it was pretty good.
Ended up taking the day off. This just means twice as much work tomorrow
The article also correctly points out that the music of this era that mattered to us rarely charted. I check in on this ongoing column, and the Billboard number 1s for most of the 90s were utter Pop ballad drivel garbage. And markedly NOT Garbage.
Quite like that Lisa Loeb track.
/shrugs
I’ve never seen “Reality Bites.”
I’ve also never seen the movie. I didn’t care much for the song back then, but it’s impossible to dislike now.
Definitely transports me back.
I like “Stay” but I have a weird feeling whenever I consider the songs of that era. A lot of overplayed sad women folk songs in the day. Do you know where your cowboys have gone?
Some of those Lilith Faire lineups were pretty good.
Yeah, that’s the thing. I like female singers, I like folk music, it just seemed to me that radio stations were trying to make a scene happen, rather than let it grow organically.
I get what you are saying–and you aren’t really wrong–but let’s not overlook the number of women rockers from that era too. Bikini Kill, Tracy Bonham, The Breeders, Liz Phair, Elastica, Garbage, just to name a few. And I like quite a few of the “sad women folk songs” too.
I think what we’re all saying is this:
Jewel was fucking terrible.
Tish and Pish, Jewell has throaty voice that adds to her records.
Well if we are naming names …
Courtney Barnett makes me want to violently destroy my audio gear.
I’m a guy who likes “unique” vocal styles but hers just makes me HATE to the point of rage!
CP: Running from Wolves — Shireen
Farhad Hussain deserves more recognition. This is a near-perfect Tears for Fears cover:
Slow down a Chipmunks New Wave album and you get The Cure. Some of these are amazing.
1.) Call Me
2.) Walk Like An Egyptian
3.) Heaven Is A Place On Earth
4.) Diamond Dolls
5.) You Keep Me Hanging On
6.) My Sharona
7.) Always On My Mind
8.) Refugee
This could be the cure for Chipmunk songs.
Crap joke for the day:
An engineer dies and reports to the pearly gates. St. Peter checks his dossier and says, “Ah, you’re an engineer — you’re in the wrong place.”
So, the engineer reports to the gates of hell and is let in. Pretty soon, the engineer gets dissatisfied with the level of comfort in hell, and starts designing and building improvements. After awhile, they’ve got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and the engineer is a pretty popular guy.
One day, God calls Satan up on the telephone and says with a sneer, “So, how’s it going down there in hell?”
Satan replies, “Hey, things are going great. We’ve got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and there’s no telling what this engineer is going to come up with next.”
God replies, “What??? You’ve got an engineer? That’s a mistake — he should never have gotten down there; send him up here.”
Satan says, “No way. I like having an engineer on the staff, and I’m keeping him.”
God says, “Send him back up here or I’ll sue.”
Satan laughs uproariously and answers, “Yeah, right. And just where are YOU going to get a lawyer?”
Little known fact – engineers have to be able to recite this joke from memory to earn their diplomas.
It never gets old.
I finally finished The Expanse Season 6. I rather enjoyed it.
Oo, let’s argue!!
I’m kidding. I do look forward to doing a full series rewatch in the next year or so.
Some minor issues here and there but … I have become a full-on, Expanse fan boy.
Yep. Me too. I’ve only read the first book, but I plan on going back and catching up. Overall, it’s one of the best SF series that I’ve seen.
I enjoy it when the high school senior declares at 11:15pm that she needs to print stuff for school tomorrow. . .
. . . When the dead old printer’s corpse is still plugged in, and it’s refurbed replacement is still sitting in the box it arrived in yesterday.
So according to an article in the new scientist, if you have a a garden and a slug/snail problem, make balls of bread dough and leave them
In the garden. The slugs/snail will home in on the dough, allowing you to collect them and dispose of them.
Personally I just let my little garden run wild and leave the slugs/nails to themselves.
+s
I admit, it was touch and go for a few days there but, today I think I may actually survive the week
You been ill?
Shingles
I didn’t realize! 🙁 I thought you just meant you were overworked/overstressed.
Started to read. Fascinating that it could have been the first feature cartoon before Snow White, if talks hadn’t fallen through.
I thought John Carter was fine. It reminded me a lot of Attack of the Clones as a messy big-screen CGI action fest. I’d have been glad to have more sequels.
I’m watching it tonight, bloody hell a pre-breaking Bad Cranston is in this, totally forgotten that.
No government would ever capture, imprison, enslave, and commodify sentient beings to use for their own violent amusement!
Because it would infringe on corporations right to do so?
Currently in Denver. Been here about 6 hours and I have such a headache.
I forgot how little oxygen you Cloud dwellers need.
I don’t get headaches when I’m there but I do pee more.
Go figure..
There is a lot of that but I assumed it was do to all the water I am drinking.
People keep telling me my head won’t hurt so much if I drink a lot of water.
Would that “water” be 80 proof with a twist of lime? That’ll get the bladder going.
Ha! I wish.
Head is much better this morning.
Think I’ll avoid the alcohol though. At least a few more days. I’m afraid it might bring back the headache.
Shame too because this place is swimming in craft beer!
You think it’s bad now, wait til 4/20.
That probably comes with less headache ?
Sunny but cold day.
Taking my eldest around for her Birthday. Visited a pet store to get her supplies for her Hermit Crabs (only pet her landlord will allow).
Went to an area called Arvada (sp?) which seemed nice. Visited a greenhouse and got a lovely, hanging plant.
Stopped in her favorite Disc Golf shop “Another Round”. Got her a disc and one for me that she is going to hand dye for my Birthday 🙂
Having a nice visit. Learning to live with less oxygen.
Bloodcurdling. I can’t believe that, at this point, anyone sees this as an issue with 2 sides.
I have to admitt that I don’t know any specifics about Cosby’s crimes.
I know the overview, he was convicted of drugging and then rapping a woman (women?).
I don’t know how many, I don’t know when (was it something he did for a decade? Durring the “Cosby Show” years? His whole life?)
I mean, I have heard a bunch of stuff here and there but I don’t think I’ve ever read a detailed accounting of what came out in his trail (trails?).
Don’t know if I need to. Basically, after he was convicted, I wrote him off.
On a happier not I just watched the new Pixar flick on Disney+ called Turning Red.
Great fun, thumbs up from me:
Just finished “The Adam Project”. That was fun, and a lot better than “The Tomorrow War”.
Elton Dan show tonight. Not autocorrect – – it was an Elton John tribute show. The guys singing voice is nothing like the original, but the songs sounded great anyway.
The show ended earlier than expected and right after “Sad Songs,” which felt weird. And I didn’t need “Candle in the Wind,” but it seems strange to do an Elton John set without it. I DID need “Funeral for a Friend/Loves Lies Bleeding” and I didn’t get those either. Oh well. I’d still see Elton Dan again.
At least it concentrates on recent titles but ditching the Cities trilogy for Foundryside..no, no, NO!
Saw Death on the Nile today, not too bad but bloody fucking hell can we stop AC adaptions, maybe adapt writers from the 21st century..just a thought.
I only found her books in the past decade, so I’m feeling the opposite. I’m good with well-produced adaptations for modern audiences. I liked Murder on the Orient Express, so I’m way down for this one.
I know the pre-Branagh Agatha Christie shows and movies have a loyal fanbase, but they always seemed hopelessly dated to me.
Definitely some odd rumblings from across the pond today. I mean, aside from these couple of Kenneth Branaugh adaptions, I can’t say I’m familiar with any movies made from Agatha Christie’s works in the last few decades.
On the other hand, it seems everything that isn’t a comic book movie is adapted from books written in this century (Hunger Games, Harry Potter, etc,)
They have been tv adaptions over here as well.
Anyway it’s coming to Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US so you can decide for yourself:
How about adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, Alice in Wonderland, A Princess on Mars, War of the Worlds, etc. Honestly I think we’ve had enough adaptations already of Sherlock Holmes and Alice in Wonderland. I’d like to see more Barsoom movies. And the last version of War of the Worlds was down right atrocious. But I think we can take from a variety of sources and time periods. It’s all in how well it’s executed.
After rewatching John Carter, I wholeheartedly agree about more Barsom flicks.
Having decided there was too much oxygen … we relocated to Breckinridge.
Another day of headaches but that has past. Still trying to catch my breath.
Everytime I think “Dolly Parton is a class act” and there is just nothing more to add to that … she gets even classier.
So. At the ER with my older daughter. She’s fine, but we’re just getting her checked out to be sure.
She was crossing the street near our home and some sack of shit hit her with his car, then drove off. No one got any info on him, so this POS is off scot free. She was too scared to ID anything about him.
I can only hope he crashed further up the road and was killed without harming anyone else.
And it’s like a fucking off-Broadway play in here, with the cast of eccentric characters. Just waiting for the musical number to begin.
Well I hope your daughter is ok.
Warm wishes to you daughter, Jack
That really sucks Jack.
Hope all is going to be fine.
Jesus that’s awful Jack! I hope she is fine. What a POS.
So this winter there have been no heavy snowfalls, the first time in my life that this has happened.
Yes, there’s actually been less snow than normal here too
Oh look, she can do housework for the first time in several weeks.
I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not. *sigh*
The husband took the wheels of his office chair. I know why he did it but it still makes the chair impossible to move when I want to vacuum.
Now that is something I could not do, I enjoy rolling the around on the wooden floor.
+chair
He took the wheels off so the chair wouldn’t roll when using pedals on his driving games
Sensible.
You want a nuclear war? Cos that’s how you start a nuclear war:
Vonnegut is most likely always right. As for the theories in this article, I could never hope to fully wrap my head around all of the implications and any of them will be difficult to demonstrate scientifically so I think of them mostly as philosophy.
Later in the article they talk about a different theory with a mirror universe in which time and entropy flow backwards. That one seems more like science fiction. I did love a David Brin book called The Practice Effect in which the protagonist finds himself in a world where time flows forward, but entropy flows backwards. I highly recommend it.
I wouldn’t even categorize the block universe theory as a “theory” since that should have direct, observable implications. In any case, it is an interesting mind experiment, but that’s about it imo.
I think I’ve heard variations of the mirror universe for years.
F. Scott Fitzgerald too, if we’re all living Benjamin Button lives.
The practical implication of that article seems to suggest that time doesn’t really exist if past, present, and future are all just “now”.
I can’t say I find the proposal terribly convincing.
I don’t think they suggest that they are all now so much as that they are as fixed as x,y,z coordinates. The earth exists in space at a constantly moving set of coordinates. We can’t change that, but we can map it. They are suggesting the same with time (except that we can’t yet observe/map the future) The upside is a lack of paradoxes because traveling back in time would not change anything. The downside is that my dream of finding a way to bring my wizened adult mind back in time to inhabit my teenage head so I can avoid all my past mistakes (and make a whole new set of even dumber mistakes) is shot to hell in this framework. I’ll just have to assume a different framework. If I’m wrong, I’ll simply have to live my life all over again exactly the way it happened (ug).
They’ve changed her powers, but I can understand why: it will be probably be a bit more believable on the screen.
I only know about her character because she was in Ultimate Alliance 3. I guess I understand that it would be hard to emulate her primary power without it looking goofy, but on the other hand that is her primary power. There was a Fantastic Four cartoon that came out in the 80s and they replaced the Human Torch with a robot because they didn’t want to constantly redraw the animated flames. This seems like the same kind of thinking.
Maybe, but I think they are following the “spirit of the law” as opposed to the “letter”. We’ll see how it plays out in the show, but I’m willing to accept the change. I’ve enjoyed the comics of her that I’ve read and at least some of that is transferring well. A nice node to the comics is her sitting on a telephone pole. https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/ms-marvel-trailer-breakdown-analysis-new-powers/
Oh, I’ll still watch. Marvel seems to have a good track record on character choices, so I’ll give it chance. Unlike Fox with their Galactus as a storm cloud.
Yeah. That made no sense at all. lol
CP: Lords of Kobol (live) — Bear McCreary
Our power went out for a bit. What was that about?
A few years back we upgraded our Amazon Alexa speaker unit to the new video version. The video version is now in the kitchen and the old Alexa speaker is now located in our television/office room. So last night we were watching a documentary on Netflix and there is a scene where a guy asks his Alexa to play a song. Our Alexa complied and we had his song playing on the television and our Alexa playing the same song a few milliseconds behind and we had this weird echo effect. Pretty surreal.
This is similar to why we had to change the “wake ID” on ours to “Computer”.
I often keep the radio playing throughout the day and for a while it was all the rage to have commercials where the characters were asking their Alexa to do things. Ours would try to comply.
I was not amused.
OK. This is getting into the land of strange now. I have always really liked Vonnegut and his writing style. Slaughterhouse 5 is a definite contender for my favorite book of all time. I watched the recent documentary on Kurt Vonnegut and it has put me back onto re-reading some of his stuff. So I’m now in re-reading Breakfast of Champions. Today we had the Vonnegut discussion here about being unstuck in time. On a separate level, I like to find old movie that I might have missed. There is a movie called Slapstick of Another Kind that looks absolutely atrocious except that it is chock full of powerhouse people like Jerry Lewis, Madeline Kahn, and Marty Feldman. But I really like old crappy comedy so I decided to watch. The story is “A rich, beautiful couple give birth to deformed alien twins who, when their heads are together, are the smartest kids on the planet.” With the parents and the children both played by Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn. The special effects around the twins in particular look like this should be an MST3K movie.
As I start watching the movie, the credits start and, lo and behold, it lists “in Kurt Vonnegut’s”. So I had to do some research. He is, indeed listed as the first name under “writers” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088134/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0). I’m not familiar with the novel “Slapstick that it’s apparently based on, but I looked it up and it includes “Dr. Swain is a hideous man whose ugliness, along with that of his twin sister Eliza, led their parents to cut them off from modern society. The siblings came to realize that, when in close physical contact, they form a vastly powerful and creative intelligence.”
So, wow, so much Vonnegut. It reminds me of the movie Repo Man where Tracy Walter’s character talks about the “lattice of coincidence” in which someone says “plate” or “shrimp” or “plate of shrimp” and you suddenly start to see “plate of shrimp” everywhere around you (at which point in the movie you start to see a lot of “plate of shrimp” references (side note: watch Repo Man if you haven’t yet. It’s insanely good). I feel like I’m going to see more and more Vonnegut all around me. And I couldn’t be happier about it.
I’ve somehow never heard of this movie(also haven’t read the book). It looks painful – – but I suppose Repo Man would look bad too, and it’s a favorite of mine (and it made a great Palooza).
I asked Siri if he could do my housework for me. He said, “I cannot”
Siri’s useless
Appreciate the non-binary Siri.
I saw Rhett for the first time in literal years last night for the Queensryche/Judas Priest concert.Great fun!
I saw the poster, gawd they look old,
Rob Halford is 70. And he looks it.
But he still has a ton of power in his voice – – and he still drove the motorcycle out onstage for “Hell Bent For Leather.” And got off the motorcycle himself!
I missed this posting. Yeah, we had a great time. Too bad we didn’t have the chance to really catch up, we’ll have to fix that later.
For those keeping score at home, I canceled ComiXology Unlimited. I’ll miss having access to all of those books, but the new interface is dreadful. It’s such a chore to find books, that I would be more frustrated than anything else. Also, it’s been over a month now, so I’m spite of some empty promises, they’re clearly not serious about undoing the damage.
Sad, it used to be a great way to connect with comics.
Sadly, ComiXology is the only game in town for digital comics that isn’t tied to one publisher (Marvel, DC), so I will still buy new books from them.
Ah, the famous interracial kiss between Kirk and Uhura (not actually the first on TV, there was an earlier one).
Sadly, “Plato’s Stepchildren” is one of the worst of all TOS episodes (though not the actual worst). Good gawd, so many cringey scenes.
-Kirk and Spock performing Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
-Kirk slapping himself.
-Kirk making horsey noises while the little guy rides his back.
-Spock dancing.
Friday before spring break.
Two whole weeks of hubby to myself!
Deadpanites you really should give Severance a try,
Just saying, cough up the 5 bucks and bunge it on AppleTV+, it’s worth it..
-u +i
Also if you have bought a new Apple device you might get a free trial.
Our Apple+ free trial is done in about a week.
That show does have a neat concept. I wonder if I’d just be gritting my teeth in horror and frustration the entire time.
So does anybody else find the DP website getting slowing when you refresh or post a message?
It feels looks I have a dodgy connection but a speed test on my mobile connection indicates it’s fine.
Absolutely. Rebels started off a bit rough, but by the end of it run had given us some of the best Star Wars ever produced. That episode was a high water mark that, sadly, most Star Wars fans likely aren’t even aware of.
Rebels IS Star Wars
I would never have completed the first season if I was watching on my own, but I’m glad I persisted. Rebels best moments are the best of all the animated shows.
Ahsoka dueling Vader was not quite as great as this one – – but up there.
As someone who has coached both male and female athletes in the same sport, over more than a decade, I can say that this author is “cherry picking” an awful lot of data just to support their theory.
For the general athletic community, my experience does not support their thesis.
Denver traffic…
I am not a fan.
That is all.
I’ve heard plenty of Nightwish before, but somehow never listened to Oceanborn.
Wow, now I get it. I’ve always just liked them, nothing more – – but this album is a masterpiece. Even those with Metal allergies might dig it.
I like Ghost River and Nemo. Levi is the one in the family that is a true fan. They are pretty great live.
Play No Mans Sky tonight and reflecting how bloody amazed my younger 80s self would be at this game.
Elite on steroids.
Completed my first expedition, yes!
Let’s start the first day of spring with snow and a biting wind
Talking of Vonnegut, there is a documentary called ‘Kurt Vonnegut Unstuck in Time” which is available on Hulu in the US.
And it is very well done.
Looks like Amazon is taking some feedback into account for ComiXology. The backup your purchases function is back, but you do have to look for it. I haven’t noticed much improvement in the app itself. I’ve been reading my comics in the iOS Kindle app, mostly because it will mark what I’m reading in GoodReads.
How Daniel Radcliffe laded the role of Weird Al in the biopic
Hubby’s home this week for spring break. It’s very had to work when he’s playing games on his computer. I want to play too.
So I bought these minimal shoes that are cheap version of those shoes that are supposed to support your feet in a more natural way.
Which basically means slightly wider and thin soles. They are comfortable though, certainly might make a good spring/summer shoes if they last.
Crap joke for the day:
A guy was boarding a plane when he heard that the Pope was on the same flight. “This is exciting!” thought the gentleman. “I’ve always been a big fan of the Pope. Perhaps I’ll be able to see him in person.” Suddenly, the man realized his seat was right next to the Pope himself!
Still, the gentleman was too shy to speak to His Holiness.
Shortly after take-off, the Pope took a crossword puzzle out of his carry on bag and began penciling in the answers.
“This is fantastic!” the gentleman mused. “I’m really good at crosswords!”
It crossed his mind that if the Pope got stuck, he’d ask him for assistance.
Almost as if providence struck, the Pope turned to the man and said, “Excuse me, but do you know a four letter word referring to a woman that ends in ‘unt’?”
The three Cardinals behind, in front of and beside him shrunk down in their seats, as far as possible, all looking for something on the floor.
The gentleman was in morbid shock.
He couldn’t breathe.
He went within himself, thought deeper, longer for a plausible answer and after almost a minute, the dark clouds of evil parted in his mind and the sun shone in.
Turning to the Pope, the gentleman said with reverence and politeness, “I believe, Your Holiness, that you’re looking for the word, ‘aunt.'”
“Of course!” the Pope mused, not taking his gaze off the crossword. “You wouldn’t happen to have an eraser, would you?”
Ha!
CP: Emil – Ultimate Weapon No. 7 — Square Enix Music
I think hubby and I are going to switch cars. They’re the same year but, because he commutes to the city for work, he has almost four times the klicks on his than I do. We’re hoping, having him put the extra kilometres on mine will extend the life of both cars.
Have there been any changes to the backend of the Deadpan site in the last few days? I use Feedly to get updates and it’s been acting odd for only this site. Instead of displaying all of the updates, it says I have x number of updates and only shows me one at a time.
I’ll ask Tony. I have not made any changes recently.
Ah man, feel better. You’re triple vaxed so, it shouldn’t be too bad.
Get better man!
In total selfishness… if you can, keep us posted as to how things manifest. Sort of “our reporter on the ground”.
Though I too am triple vaxed and still mask (about 50% of the time)… I figure it’s “when” and not “if” before it gets me and I’d like to know what to expect/watch for.
So. . . . the full story:
I assume I caught it at the Judas Priest concert last week (Tuesday). I started to feel congested and achy on Saturday. I took a home COVID test on Sunday (or was it Monday?) and it was negative. I even took LeeLoo to her first karate class on Monday – – we were all masked up the whole time.
The symptoms steadily worsened as the week progressed. Achy, headachy, congested, tired, blecch. So I took a different brand of home COVID test last night, and it came up positive.
Today I’ve done nothing but sleep, which I think has helped, but I’m not out of the woods at all yet. Yes, because of my vax status, I’m not worried for myself.
I am concerned because LeeLoo has tested positive. She had a 101 temp last night.
This post inspired by a podcast that I’m listen too that covers this short term trend:
CD- rebuilding the calander on my laptop.
About 80% of my entries starting from about May 2021 have vanished.
Big news from MST3K land. You really want to do that free registration for the Gizmoplex (https://www.gizmoplex.com/browse). I just got a backer update with this information:
“Starting on MAY 6, all registered Gizmoplex users will be able to stream EVERY AVAILABLE CLASSIC EPISODE – that’s over 125 episodes from Seasons 1-10 – for free, and without ads!
Yeah, you heard us: even if you don’t have a Gizmoplex Member Pass, you’ll be able to stream the entire MST3K classic collection for free, and – for a limited time – without advertising!”
And if you are interested in season 13:
“Grab a Season Pass ($135) before the SEASON PREMIERE on May 6, and you’ll also get a DIGITAL DOWNLOAD of Season 13 – worth $85 – for free!”
Honestly, $135 for a season pass is a bit steep. But they are doing more than just new episodes. They are also doing live stream events each month and a bunch of other bonuses. Although probably still steep at $135.
She’s off to see the wizard
the adequate wizard of Meh
we hear he is an adequate Wiz if ever A wiz there was
If ever an adequate Wiz there was
the wizard of Meh is one because
because because because because becaaaaause
because of the average things he does
….she’s off to see the wizard
the adequate wizard of Mehhhhhh
You missed your calling, JustaJoe.
This is inspired!
For my part, I’m going to aspire to put the “me” into mediocrity.
Little one is crabby today. Presumably because she’s sick.
Me, I’m still coughing and blecch. Sleep just isn’t happening (worse than usual).
Seriously fuck COVID.
That blows. Sorry about the little one. There is some data that if you have been vaxed and still manage to get Covid, your immunity will be stronger. How long that immunity lasts is still up in the air.
Hope you and the little one get better soon *hugs*
The science is on our side. Little ones tend to recover just fine. Vaxxed people tend to recover fine. But I don’t want to tempt the universe any further with any optimism. Last time I did that, I caught covid.
For posterity: we were both trending in the right direction yesterday, we’ve both had worse days today. I am less achy, but more congested. Her temp is fine, but she’s very moody, which is not like her at all.
One more complaint – – I had a coworker telling me on a call to take ivermectin, to “not believe the media.” It worked for him! Being a polite person, I just nodded and smiled. I did mention that I’d heard good things from people I trust sources about remdesivir, but this expert then told me to avoid it because it was full of side effects.
Seriously, how did these people come to dominate our conversations? It’s like the smelly guy on the subway has taken over all discourse.
The same guy took over a company call during Texas’s big energy crisis to rant about “the windmills.” When a higher up said, “That was disproven immediately,” he retreated into more dogma, so everyone else, recognizing treacherous political talk ahead, dropped the topic.
Hope you and your family get better soon, Jack. And ignore the crazies. Not that you need me to tell you that. 😀
We watched the first ep of Halo. It’s quite a departure from the games and books, imo. But, it was enjoyable in its own right. I’ll just think of it as an alternate universe version. 😀
Agreed but there had better be an actual Halo and the flood at some point.
Interesting look at what may have been going on in other countries to make it APPEAR that ivermectin was effective against Covid. (Narrator- “It was not”.)
Fwd to me from my eldest, who is currently studying for her Masters in the bio-engineering world.
It’s really not bad at all. It’s not amazing – – but I feel like a few days with a skilled film editor, and you could have had something really excellent.
Lots of parallels between this and Justice League – – even a few DC jokes – – but it’s far, far better than any of the DCU movies.
The most far-fetched thing in this movie would have been Angelie Jolie’s enormous lips.
Yeah. Pacing was the biggest issue, imo.
We were ok with Eternals. However, given all the reviews, I think we went in with low expectations so were pleasantly surprised.
This Pitch Meeting on Eternals is also fun (contains spoilers)
I keep confusing “The Eternals” (which I haven’t seen) with “The Old Guard” (which I have, and enjoyed).
Still fighting with my MacBook and Firefox.
Every site I try to go to gives me a warning that says it’s certificate is bad and it won’t open the site.
Tried-
– Making sure computer’s date/time is accurate. It is.
– Erasing every bit of cache, history, cookies… everything has been deleted.
Still nothing.
I know the sites are OK because my old computer will access them.
Frustraighting
Covupdate:
We have 3/4 of the household tested positive now.
The littlest one seems to be recovering. Fingers crossed.
I’m recovering, but still coughing more than I’d like. The worst part is the Covidsomnia. And of course, lack of sleep (worse than my usual) isn’t helping anything.
I’m not gonna shut down talk of the Smith/Rock thing. I’m sure there are important things to be said about it.
But jesus, I was already tired of it last night.
I half expect it was planned just to generate buzz.
Looking at prices of G=Shock watches that have a similar spec to mine, prices have tripled over 15 years..ouch!
Mine is still working, mocking me everyday by continuing to work.
CP: You Never Give Me Your Money/The End — Tenacious D
I haven’t read in almost two weeks. I know there is a very good reason for such, but it still bothers me
So we watched the animated Aladdin tonight, and wow, it has not aged well. Even the Robin Williams parts were often seriously dated. (Hey kids, look, it’s Jack Nicholson jokes! And a Rodney Dangerfield impression!)
Hey, at least there’s no Aladdin connection to Wil Smith, right?
Wait, what?
First film I rewatched when I subscribed to Disney+ and a very hard disagree from me, still love it and prefer it to the non animated version.
Hard pass on the CGI Aladdin. Unrelated to recent events.
I don’t know if the COVIDsomnis is the worst part, but it’s pretty fucking awful.
*hugs*
It snowed last night. I’m sure spring will show up at some point.
If I can distract you from that Star Trek episode you’ve watched 100 times, The Last Days of Ptolemy Greyon Apple TV+ is also rather good.
I need to check, but I think our Apple TV+ has run out.
Speaking of Apple TV+, we did at least make it through the 2 seasons of Ted Lasso.
Truly a special show. Took us completely by surprise. It surpasses the hype. We’ll have to find ways to watch future seasons.
This soundtrack and movie were both a big deal to me. I still listen to this often. I don’t agree with the article that the movie “doesn’t hold up…” – – but then, it’s been a few years since I last watched.
Also – – Kennedy! What a shame that she went from “that quirky music geek VJ” to “that rage-filled blathering talking head.”
I HATED Kennedy.
Like, a lot.
Like, so much that I WROTE her a letter (email did not exist at the time) asking if perhaps she wouldn’t find something else to do with her life. I believe I may have been a bit more acerbic with my wording than that.
That is the only “personality” I have ever written to in my life.
This is how strongly I disliked her.
Well, it would seem you were prescient about her.
The only VJs I ever really liked were Martha Quinn and J.J. Jackson.
Hubby is home this week. He’s decided we need to go… somewhere. I guess tomorrow we’re going for a drive.
Well the first episode of Moon Knight has dropped on Disney+
I will be watching it with my tea this evening.
Pinky out or in?
I got into Moon Knight during my brief time back in NJ, but never too deeply. I tried a few reboot attempts – – the best dealt with his multiple personalities, the worst made him into a white-caped Batman.
I’m glad the show seems to be leaning into the madness angle.
Regardless of his recent track record – – on and off camera – – this guy was such a huge part of our formative movie and TV days. Truly sad news.
But other than that, an intriguing start to a series,
I didn’t think I was going to enjoy ‘Our Flag is Death’, but 5 episodes in and I’m really enjoying it.
On HBO Max in the states or you could go down the ironic route to watch.
Cough
“go down the ironic route” *cough*
Never heard Google Maps’ voice direction cough before.
So we’re going to Drumheller tomorrow. Will probably hit the Tyrrell. I took Van there when he was up my way.
We quite liked the first episode of Moon Knight. However, personally speaking, I don’t think it’s a show my eldest should watch
As a casual fan of the character, I liked it too. Intriguing premise, intriguing bad guy. The main character whose perspective we get is a bit of a cliche, but it works.
Do you think there would be triggers for for your eldest?
Yeah, big time triggers. I’ve never made it a secret she has schizophrenia. She doesn’t have a split personality, but the voices and hallucinations were big time early on before she was diagnosed. She keeps them in check now but still…
I liked it more than T Cat. She found it a bit too disturbing, though she’s willing to watch the rest of it.
I was afraid Teresa wouldn’t like it because of the time gaps, but she really liked it. I’m quite happy with the first episode.
Fun idea. It looks more like a social/party game than a “sit down in your chair and play alone” kind of thing. From their perspective, it’s a good idea.
Will I play it if invited? Sure! Will I buy it? Doubtful.
It snowed, and it’s cold. I think we’ll head out tomorrow instead
AV club moves to LA after giving ultimatum to staff:
Well finished watching ‘Our Flag Means Death’, that ending..right in the feels.
I’ve done the first couple of episodes so far. Quite intrigued. Though, now that I know where I recognize the lead from, I can’t help but to keep saying “Welcome to Jumanji” now…
The hat does appear in a later episode.
On the read to see the dinosaurs
*sigh*
Read = road
Yesterday I replaced the 3, burned out bulbs in my kitchen ceiling fixtures with three LED bulbs.
Today they wouldn’t turn on. Took one out and put it in a different fixture and it worked. Put it back up and nothing.
Resolved to take them back. Went to kitchen pantry for breakfast, turned on the pantry light and all three kitchen bulbs came on.
I begin to suspect I am living in a 3 stooges episode.
Can turn pantry light off and the other bulbs stay on. Played with it a bit. Sometimes 1 or 2 lights come on when their switch is flipped but to get all 3 I must flip switch in pantry.
Internet turned up no hits on this so I call GE help line. Got routed to a technical person. She was amused at the situation and congratulated me for being the first to report this situation.
Guess I need to scour the town for any remaining, incandescent, “Reveal” bulbs.
BTW – after spending 2 days trying to trouble shoot my laptop, it still tells me every website’s certificate is invalid and just will not work on many of them even if I tell it to ignore the security message.
I think I shall go out and pull weeds from the garden. I don’t think those are digital yet.
I’d say there is a problem with your ceiling fixtures, not your bulbs.
Yeah, it is either your light fixture or your circuit that connects your fixtures. I’m not an electrician, but my intuition is telling me there is some electrical resistance in your fixture or circuit. The extra power draw of flipping on your other switch is enough to overcome the resistance and turn on the bulbs. Imagine me telling you this in the voice of Cliff Clavin.
Sounds like a good day to churn butter by candlelight.
CP: I Got You — Split Enz
What it is like to own an out of warranty German automobile:
A little dog goes into a saloon in the Wild West, and beckons to
the bartender. “Hey, bartender, gimme a whiskey.”
The bartender ignores him.
“Hey bartender, gimme a whiskey!”
Still ignored.
“HEY BARMAN!! GIMME A WHISKEY!!”
The bartender takes out his six-shooter and shoots the dog in the
leg, and the dog runs out the saloon, howling in pain.
Three years later, the wee dog appears again, wearing boots,
jeans, chaps, a Stetson, gun belt, and guns. He ambles slowly into the
saloon, goes up to the bar, leans over it, and says to the bartender,
“I’m here t’git the man that shot muh paw.”
Huh, I have just been hearing “Convoy” in recent days. Asking google to play “Eastbound and Down” auto generates a follow on play list that includes this one.
CW: Moonfall
It’s all rather silly but it does mention the Roche limit so props for that.
Half a million views in a few days. At this rate he might just make enough money to pay off what it took to make that guitar.
And totally agreed about the talent it takes to pull this off.
So this is what he’s been up to. lol
It’s been ages since I’ve heard of him.
Vai was at the last MHoF event in Jan 2020, getting inducted and inducting Satriani. He and his wife were clearly not open to stop and chat, so I didn’t approach him.
Unlike the gaggle of fanboys who chased him everywhere.
Spring will arrive at some point
Well goodbye to Alain Delon, just not now but soon:
Well Oscar’s English accent was not quite as grating on a rewatch of Moon Knights first episode.
I didn’t notice anything off about it. But I’m not a native British English speaker. I will say that after years of watching British comedies, I can (with utter confidence) say that the accent was better than Dick Van Dyke in Marry Poppins.
And (minor detail spoiler) some one even says to him at one point, “What’s with that accent?” I think, even if it is dodgy, they gave a workable excuse.
Happy birthday to both Amy Bowen and Dani! May you have the bestest birthday ever
With luck, (fingers crossed) I’ll do a movie on Friday. It’s been awhile, I know.
I’m getting off some meds today so I’m hoping life will be back to normal
hugs
What he said.
Make it three.
GROUP HUG!!!!
CP: Don’t Get Yourself In Trouble (live) — Bachman-Turner Overdrive
I get that there are different sides of this issue. . . But man, that’s a hard life. And it’s the cold-hearted, tone deaf responses from some that get me.
And really, it comes down to the same argument: streamers should just provide adequate compensation to the musicians who are providing the product for their customers.
They should clarify that it’s Pink Floyd without Roger Waters.
That’s just Waters under the bridge by now.
Do you think he’s trolling them?
From the article –
A week before Russia invaded Ukraine, Waters told an interviewer on Russia Today that talk of a Russian invasion was “bullshit … anybody with an IQ above room temperature knows [an invasion] is nonsense”; he has subsequently condemned the invasion calling it “the act of a gangster”, while also condemning “propaganda to demonise Russia”
If we start to go down that route, how many clarifiers would it take to describe “Yes” for any given album?
With season 2 of Picard airing, there seems to be a lot of Trek news lately. In my Facebook feed, an old friend of mine, posted about how he and his brother were on set to observe the taping of TNG S1E25 “Conspiracy”.
He posted, “At some point when Patrick is picking up the phaser and the take is cut, he stands up and tosses the phaser II in the air end over end and catches it again by the handle.
Mind BLOWN.
Picard and Riker holding those phasers in that shot will live with me forever.”
The overture is included and just like that I’m bloody old..
So you did watch that new-fangled version?
Yup, nice and sparkly.
I was on Reddit today and on the /r/startrek group, someone was watching Star Trek : The Motion Picture for the first time thanks to the Paramount+ 4K Remaster.
The fellow was astounded that the movie featured the theme from Star Trek: The Next Generation
I’ve never felt so old…
I remember how the decades felt distinctly different. 1984 was so much different than 1994. 2008 and 2022 seem about the same. Everything after the ’90s is just one long decade. That gives me a warped perspective on the passage of time.
Goodbye to another part of my childhood, the author of Mr Benn has died:
When we visited the wonderful Space Center in the south with the wonderful JustaJoe, they had a bunch of these kinds of posters, referencing Stargate, different versions of Trek, Aliens.
Who’s surprised that career space scientists are also nerds?
Loads of Brit actors doing terrible US accents…argh!
Actually not too bad, if you like your spy movies to be as far away as possible from James Bind you might enjoy this.
-i +o
If you think I might enjoy thos, I might give it a try 😉
Today we were talking about porpoises and I made a Hudson Hawk reference. Hubby had no idea what I was talking about. I think I will introduce him to the (fun) hot mess that is Hudson Hawk. I wonder if it will hod up. I have my doubts.
You know, it held up. Still silly fun
That one would be a good Palooza candidate…someday.
I know what it is. I haven’t had the experience. I would watch it for you guys.
I saw it at the cinema.
Was my ‘I’ll watch any film good or bad’ phase.
Don’t think I’ve seen it.
JW: Amelie
Goodness I just love this film and the accordion music is just FAB.
It’s been years since I viewed it but I recall loving it.
Seems like it had my level of movie quirkiness.
I’m way too tired to read it in full, but I intend to get back.
Took in the new 4K Remaster of Star Trek: The Motion Picture on Paramount+ . While still not a perfect film, it’s certainly much better than folks give it credit for. It’s based on the 2001 Director’s Edition, which I don’t think I had actually seen before.
I do recommend it if you’ve got access. I also stayed through the credits to take in this bit of a 40 year overdue fix:
Star Trek is not Star Wars, so the first film was very much in the spirit of the original series.
I’m definitely more Wars than Trek, but I’ve seen a goodly amount of Trek over the years. I remember people giving the first Trek movie a lot of crap for being slow, but I really, really liked it. It was visually stunning and I loved the concepts it got into.
I’ve never agreed with the common opinion that the first Star Trek is a bad movie – – but – – it is goddamn slow. That scene of viewing the Enterprise is majestic. . . then tedious. . . then oh my god, move on!!
I recall reading as a kid that the Trek community felt that it was a fine Sci-Fi movie, but not really true to Star Trek. That’s why we got Wrath of Khan, which was more true to its roots.
I’ve never been busted for bringing them to mmmeetups.
It bemuses me that they are still banned when loads of children die each year in the US from firearm accidents.
There was a dark joke a few years back about including small toys inside of AR-15s instead of chocolate eggs so kids would have easier access to them.
A lot about the US bemuses me
That Dark City article (I posted April 10) is pretty interesting. The parallels between Dark City and the Matrix are obvious, but I didn’t know DC was actually a direct influence on the Matrix.
Well the ‘From’ season finale was rather short of anything indicating what the fuck was going on.
Hopefully it will get a S2.
Woah, royalties are done.
That means, tomorrow, I can actually do a PBP!
For Mother’s Day, my Boo is using their 3D printer to make me a Majima statue. She keeps sending me pics of the work in process. The last one was of a bunch of limbs beside a Coke bottle. It was a little disturbing
We used Bose Frames for a work project and I was extremely impressed with the quality. They have speakers that point into your ears from the frames of the sunglasses so it works like headphones but without anything actually sitting in your ears.
Oy. . . TL;DW – – I only skipped ahead to see the book he chose. But oy.
Ok, let’s see what Netflix has on tap. Whatever it is, it will just be a normal pbp. My brain is still getting off spreadsheet mode so isn’t feeling overly creative right now.
Ok, today’s movie is Privlige
The write up: Dark rituals. Family secrets. And a demonic evil lurking in the shadows. In this town, privlige comes at a terrible price.
Oh. Language, violence, and nudity warning. The perfect trifecta of a terrible B movie
Babysitting is yuck to big sister
It’s not Anna
Cool bookshelves
Don’t open your mouth
Oh Anna, you’re going crazy
Anna didn’t last long
Time passes
His performance dropped by 15%
Zombie ants
Mom found his scary pics
Rave in the swimming pool
Sex at the rave
He’s thinking about dead Anna
Going to see grandpa
He’s stronger than Anna
This has slight Get Out. vibes
Sophie is changing
I never had to climb a rope in gym class
Yeah, that wasn’t a thing in PE classes at school.
Oh please, we all know the doctor is in on it
He’s acting creepy
Meeting Sophie’s ex
… or what’s left of him
Sure. Drugs caused this
CW: Tokyo Vice E3
Is it good?
Yeah, definitely worth a watch.
Wait outside while I talk to Lars
Yeah, calm down
What’s in the pills?
This is not a worm
Necro fungus
I know someone
High school antics
I swallowed it
Has it hurt her yet?
We need an exorcism
Is evil real?
We all have our own demons
Smoke from the tummy
He forgot about his study date
We have our methods
Remembering dead Anna
Time for some EVP
Under any circumstances
This seems more like a séance than an exorcism
I don’t think it liked that noise
You’re all going to die
How cliche
I’m afraid to be alone
It might be the last night of their lives
Wait? A threesome. Yup, it must be the last night of his life
The ritual lady is gone
Yup, the medication seems safe to me
He’s acting like Anna did before she bit it
Checking out the drug maker
Everybody’s adopted
Found the medium… what’s left of her anyway
That can’t be good
We have always been here
A secret room
You will bond quickly
Step back everyone
The transition is beginning
Escape!
Fire!
The shock ending
I wanted to like this movie. It had a lot of potential. It just… I don’t know. Didn’t quite click
I had tickets to see KMFDM and Ministry in 2020, but time, cancellations, and reschedulings saw that lineup morph a bunch of times. It somehow ended up last night as Corrosion of Conformity, Melvins, and Ministry, which is a weird collection of bands.
CoC were great. Never been much into the Melvins, but Buzz Osbourne’s “Sideshow Bob” hair was fascinating to watch.
And Ministry was pretty unforgettable. It’s a miracle Al Jourgensen is still alive, but he seemed really energetic and lively at last night’s show. Turns out he’s a great performer. Man, that moshpit got going a bunch of times.
Sounds cool!
Last weekend Tbird and I went to Tucson and saw the Megadeth, Lamb of God, Trivium, and In Flames show. The acoustics were some of the best I’ve heard. In Flames sounded incredible with new guitarist Chris Broderick. They played an older song “Behind Space” which I never thought I would hear live. Megadeth was pretty good, Dave still has most of his vocals and still comes off as sort of a dick. Trivium played well, but I think they are mostly an okay band. The big surprise was Lamb of God. I don’t usually listen to much straight-up death metal, but Lamb of God had an amazing energetic performance complete with pyrotechnics. It was so fun, Teresa was grinning ear to ear.
Nice! Rich Catino’s review of Lamb of God was just “Stop yelling at me!”
Ha! Yeah, I think it works better as a live performance than something I would listen to on a long car ride. 🙂 I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did, doubly so for Teresa.
Moon Knight episode 3 was rather cool.
CP: Monument (The Inevitable End Version) — Royksopp feat. Robyn
I found this show called Hotel Paranormal. It’s narrated be Dan Akroyd. It’s wonderfully cheesy
What do you do when it’s -11 and snowy out? You put together a spring catalogue.
*sigh*
You crank the heat to max and hide under the covers.
I saw a few authors complain recently about reopening their Google docs only to find that all of the previous day’s work was gone.
Be warned.
So our tax guy last year died unexpectedly. Very sad.
He had a friend/professional relation reach out to cover his cases for this year.
We agreed (We’ve learned that it typically saves money as well as time and stress to hire a tax pro. At least in the US).
He didn’t tell us until a few days ago that he’d need to file an extension. Wonderful. He then said we were going to owe a lot. The number gave me palpitations.
It’s going to hurt. This is going to be the most expensive year ever.
I wonder if I can just put up $3 billion to buy Twitter instead of paying.
Shit! Sorry to hear that Jack.
Ever since Bush, and then Trump, changed the tax laws to let you keep more money during the year, taking the standard deduction is a risky proposition. So we always have them take out more. While we still got a tax refund this year, it was a lot less than typical. My niece got into trouble about 10 years ago, owing something like 20k. They had to take out a loan to pay it back. Good thing Tbird has her CPA, that’s sort of a ridiculous requirement just to pay taxes.
We got into an under-withholding situation abut 15 years ago and had a pretty sizeable payment due for the day. Ever since, we’ve always made sure our withholding was high enough to make sure we get some kind of refund.
I feel your pain, amigo.
I *thought* I did this last year, but maybe I never did.
I’m going to reduce my take-home on my paycheck to $17 from here on out.
This reminds me of a joke I heard in college about the simplified tax return. Step one, record your total earnings for last year. Step two, send it in.
One of the absolute greatest hockey heroes of my youth died today. He probably could have published an autobiography, but the above “letter to my younger self” is pretty poignant. Especially today.
Rob Zombie is great at slasher horror and has made some fantastic content over the year. I just can’t see how him doing The Munsters would work well. And I really, really can’t see how Sheri Moon Zombie would work as Lily. They they put Cassandra Peters (Elvira) in the movie playing a straight laced real estate agent. I think I’ll have to give this one a pass unless I hear from a lot of people I know and trust that it really does work.
The Munsters, which is a show I enjoyed very much as a youth, it’s just your very basic sitcom. It is loveable goofballs getting into shenanigans and straightening it out in the end because they have a lot of heart.
It’s “Everybody loves Raymond“, wrapped in Halloween.
RZ could surprise us but to date… he has shown no acumen or even any interest in that wheelhouse.
I too shall avoid this unless I hear great things.
Very well said.
I acknowledge that The Munsters was a dumb old sitcom, and is probably unwatchable now (I haven’t tried an episode in decades) – – but they did have a great look. The house, the car, the whole family. And yes, I did love it as a young TV viewer.
I know every Munsters reboot attempt has tried and failed, and I expect this one to fail too. Zero interest from me.
I was interested in this but he didn’t tell me a lot more than I already new from watching movies.
I would have liked to seen a comparison of the amount of explosive in each and also a comparison of lethality, given that the MK2 comes with fragmentation.
Well as mentioned in the video , since nobody uses potato mashers anymore, the pineapple style of grenade won out.
I’ve reached the same scene that knocked me to the canvas during earlier drafts.
It’s slapping me around again, though maybe not as bad.
It’s a pivotal moment, so I can’t really just leave and come back to it.
Going grocery shopping this morning. Normally hubby and I go together on Sunday but the silly store opened late yesterday because there was a holiday or something
I tried grocery shopping yesterday but all the major supermarket chains were shut on Easter Sunday.
The PIAT the almost forgotten anti tank weapon of WW2:
Currently at accountants to sign taxes
And write checks.
Boo
HaZah!
We withheld enough that we are getting a refund that will be enough to cover the accountants fee.
So it’s a wash … and I will consider that a “win”.
I will NEVER understand your tax system.
I don’t trust anyone who does.
Anyway, I’m glad you got good news, Joe!
Agreed
To Van’s comment. The jury’s not out yet on Jack’s
I’m going to complain again about this difficult scene.
I know it’s gonna be great when it’s done, as long as I do it right – – but actually writing it properly is an exercise in UGGHH.
Am I crying out for attention and validation? Possibly. I gotta vent.
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”
“There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you, and there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.”
“All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
I think my boss is getting burned out. A lot of things seem to be falling behind.
I hope it’s only temporary burnout.
I been there. I feel dat.
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
“Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their carvings.”
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.”
“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
*Pictures of mountain climbers, roaring lions, eagles in flight, runner finishing a race*
Communication is key. I thought my boss was doing something, she thought I was doing it. I guess I’m doing it on an amazingly tight deadline.
Note: not related to post above.
*sigh*
Work keeps hitting me. We uploaded an audiobook a few weeks ago for distribution. Turns out six of the eighty files didn’t upload properly. Didn’t find out until people started buying it and complaining about half chapters.
Can’t blame the distributor as they don’t actually listen to the files, just assume they are correct. Can’t blame me because I get no feedback if the files are corrupted.
*sigh* Just one of those things, I guess.
“The extent of the struggle determines the extent of the growth. The obstacle is an advantage, not adversity. The enemy is any perception that prevents us from seeing this.”
“The less pain we tolerate, the more average we become.”
“Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get you any nearer.
I had no idea Netflix was in such a state. It makes me realize that the only Netflix I’ve watched – – maybe this entire year – – was that Rock/Ryan Reynolds/Gal Gadot movie.
“and in Russia, where the company lost another 700,000 subscribers after ceasing operations in response to the invasion of Ukraine.”
At least it’s good to see that part of the loss is for the right reasons.
RE: Jack’s writing block
Recommendation: Add a nice fruit basket to the scene to give it some color.
With plenty of tomatoes to be thrown later.
I’m starting to feel like, if there isn’t a fruit basket, I’ll be disappointed.
Maybe we should send John Goodman in Barton Fink mode to encourage him.
I’m too distracted by peeling wallpaper.
As he glances at the wallpaper, he focuses on its decrepit state. A large portion peeled back. “What is that?”, he wondered. There were markings on the back of the paper. No, not markings, RUINS! Were these left by his hateful mother? Was the old witch so paranoid that she would curse her very living space on the odd chance someone would come to corner her? Whether that was true or not, the paper, wallpaper holds a spell. One that may help him escape. God bless that cursed woman.
Apologies.
Did you mean RUNES?
Waiting to see if a snow day will be called for schools. Even so, it’s possible hubby might have to go in. Schools cannot be left empty because there will always be some parent who doesn’t listen to the news and will still bring their kid in.
However, since hubby has to take the highway into work, I’m hoping his VP will step up and go to the school instead.
Hubby went into work. Let’s see how long it takes him to get there
Hubby texted. It took about twice as long than normal to get into work. Not bad all things considered
It occurs to me today that I never had a lunchbox for school.
Either went home or had school dinners.
Elementary, pretty much always went home. Mom worked so I was on my own to scrounge whatever I could find.
Middle school was in an entirely different town so I only had box lunches then.
My first one was a beauty – – a metal lunchbox with images from Star Wars on it. Complete with plastic thermos.
Replete with slightly sour milk smell.
My Elementary school, metal lunchbox was a “Starsky and Hutch” model.
Shame I don’t still have that.
I was mostly a brown paper bag lunch kid. I’m sure I had lunch boxes when I was really really young. But by middle school, anyone with an actual lunch box would have been ridiculed.
I disagree with some of these. Seems like a more appropriate title would be “great books have many themes. Here is why my choice of themes is more important than your choice of themes”. For example, his take that A Clockwork Orange was really about how settling down to a family life is the ultimate form of ultraviolence would seem to indicate that the theme of having the choice of good and evil (you, know… the one indicated in the title of the friken book) is totally unimportant and there really was only one thing to take away from it.
I ran a test and all worked out well. Krull is one of my all time favorite movies and I even have a tattoo of the glaive. I recently watched the Rifftrax version of Krull and found I was just as happy to watch them riff a movie that I love as I was to watch them riff what I would consider a bad movie. I find this especially interesting as the Rifftrax crew are a bit more rough on the movies they riff and vocal about their distaste for a film. I still really enjoyed it.
Krull remains one of my guilty pleasures for which I feel no guilt whatsoever.
I will not shame either of you guys for loving and even honoring that goofy-ass movie with permanent ink.
I really want to see a spin-off detailing the torrid past love story between the spider-woman and that other supporting character.
But please, don’t go NC-17 with it.
We never did a palooza on Krull, did we? I believe it was a contender.
Speaking of Paloozas….are we up for a Zoom call in the near future to discuss…something?
I’m trying to remember the others that we picked.
Tenet and the Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
Tiffany and I even watched TBoBS!
Yeah, time is at a premium, and will continue to be. But let’s start checking calendars.
We got to talk about Tenent we already did Buster.
. . . . I think we only did Fifth Element last fall.
I agree. I remember doing Fifth Element. Don’t remember doing Buster or Tenet.
Yeah, we only did Fifth Element. We talked about doing Buster back in November but it never actually happened.
Seeing the dentist this morning. Gonna get my teeth cleaned
Today was x-ray day at the dentist. Both myself and the dental assistant hate that day. I have a small mouth and it’s always a battle getting the block in my mouth. I sometimes wonder why they don’t use kid sized blocks in my mouth for x-rays, it’s what they do if I need any actual work done.
Anyway, no cavities, so that’s good.
CW: The RKO Story
Part one of an old documentary hosted by Ed Asner.
Some great points made. I was concerned that the article was stating that the movies were becoming physically impossible to access – – but they’re just saying that interest in viewing them is dwindling to almost non-existent.
The fellow strikes me as a bit of “doth protest too much” Just because something old was recognized as good or “classic” at some point, doesn’t mean it deserves to stay in our cultural pantheon forever.
I have no need to drive a Model T to have a greater appreciation of my current car.
His point about the books is particularly telling – it seems like a lot of those hang on in high school reading lists largely due to inertia as much as anything. And it has certainly cost us by excluding more contemporary and, dare I even say it, diverse reading choices from entering into our education curriculum.
And, I’m certainly not saying that we shouldn’t consider older media altogether, as there is historical context to appreciate in some cases. That said, I’m not likely to ever read “Gone with the Wind” or watch “Birth of a Nation”.
This is like the opposite opinion of the music article that complained that new music had too much competition from old music “How can new musicians get a foothold when everyone keeps romanticizing the past?” Culture is very much obsessed with its own interest. The cinema of yesteryear was very concerned with its own time period, the same as today. What I think is different is there are so many forms of entertainment competing for our attention in the modern era, people will opt for what is familiar.
I think the concern I take away from this is that movies (and books) are being dismissed simply because they’re old and out of the pop culture scope.
Sure, there are certainly plenty of old films, books, etc that can fade away at no cost to anyone’s “cultural literacy,” but there are also so many that are truly important – – on a small and large scale.
Take “The Day the Earth Stood Still” from 1954, for example. It’s pacing is snail slow, its world is incredibly dated, FX laughable at places, but it’s also more than just a fun old romp to me. I’d feel like I was a less well-rounded pop culture geek if I’d dismissed it simply because of its age.
Take: “Plan 9 From Outer Space.” Good gawd is it a disaster, but I’m a richer person for having seen it, with and without robot puppets cracking jokes at it.
Or “Seven Samurai.” A 3.5 hour black-and-white 1950s movie with subtitles. Daunting, but damn, I’d be a different person if I hadn’t caught it in my 20s.
Off to the city this morning
It’s snowing. Not hard enough to stick but still, I’m getting pretty tired of snow.
How did I get roped in to coordinating Tyche’s entire programming stream for WWC? You’ve heard the term herding cats? Try herding authors.
Well. That was — not fun. Complete white out in the highway between my place and the city. I I got into Calgary it was basically raining. Before Calgary…
I hope it’s better by the time I’m ready to go back
Currently wondering how many divorces have been precipitated by one of the spouses attempting to switch to a new cell phone on the existing plan.
The horror
The horror
The horror
I guess it’s better than if you leave an unwashed plate on the draining board.
WTF is with this weather!!!
Climate change dontchaknow..
Video doorbells, record audio from further than you might think:
We watched the first How to Train Your Dragon last night. I forgot just how great movie is. . . IIRC, the 2nd one was at least as great, if not better. These should be counted among the best traditional Fantasy movies of all time
Never got around to the 3rd, but I think we’ll remedy that in the near future.
CP: Getting Way With It – Electronic
An old high school acquaintance did a documentary about growing up in our hometown. It’s weird seeing so many people I recognize. It’s funny and I think, would have a lot of interest for the history buff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r49uyvZKjiE&t=10s
In my limited spare time of late, I’ve been wanting to add some custom 3D models of my old hometown in Kansas. I’ve been scouring the internet for photos that I can use. This is how I stumbled on the article above. Well, I stumbled on another article that awakened some old memories, which I’ll link below.
When I was 14, I worked at one of the two grocery stores in Herington, KS, a town of around 3000 people. Mostly I would stock the food isles and help bag groceries and help people load their cars. Herington was a pretty sleepy town with a lot of elderly retirees who took advantage of its low cost of living. One of the oddest characters that I can remember was a tiny disheveled woman in her late 60s. The thing that made her memorable was she would buy seven or eight of the largest dog food bags, the 100-pounders, and have us load up her truck. I remember doing this a few times and being 14, I remember that it was kind of an ordeal loading 700lbs of dog food at a time. I would try to make small talk with her, but she was quick to shut down any conversation. She became to be known as the “Dog Lady”, apparently she lived in seclusion out in the country and took in every stray dog she could. In December of 1983, she vanished without a trace and was never found. You can read about her here: https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2021/10/the-mysterious-vanishing-of-the-dog-lady-of-kansas/
Wild that she got that much notoriety! And she was that memorable to you.
The above two comments justify the existence of the internet.
So the series ignores the book and rather bases it’s contents on the movie version instead? That wouldn’t at all surprise me if they went that route even though I would bet that most of the people currently watching the series are familiar with neither. But more people would be willing to go out and watch a 2 hour film to gear themselves up than to read the source material. I have to say, as much as I love Bowie, that movie didn’t really move me that much. It was OK, but not much more than that.
It’s more a sequel, with the Bowie character now played by Bill Nye advising his fellow alien.
Please please tell me you meant Bill Nighy….and not Bill Nye…the Science Guy.
Oooops, yes Billy Nighy
Now I want to see Bill Nye play David Bowie in a movie.
I got tagged with picking an “art film” for watching with some friends this evening.
Knowing them as I do… I was looking for something quirky and a bit odd.
I have suggested “Amélie” and am waiting to hear back but I am guessing they have seen it.
Does anyone have any other suggestions along that line?
These are people I used to watch things like “Eraserhead” with back in our 20s so I know they have a high tolerance for odd things like that and foreign films.
Well the director of Amelie latest film is BigBug and that’s on Netflix so easy to watch.
OMG
THAT is the Batman the world NEEDS right now!!!!
Alright, that was pretty damn amazing.
CW: Barry S3E1
While waiting for snow tires to be removed, Boo took me to her work where the animals live. It was fun. Unfortunately, the porcupines were on tour so I didn’t get to see them.
I didn’t go into the creepy crawlers room though. Reptiles, birds, and mammals are good enough for me.
OMG, the one where the Enterprise is taken over by hippies.
Up there with the worst of TOS, possibly the No.1
Way worse than Spock’s Brain
Owen Wilson doesn’t look much older since playing the part of Adam.
I’ve probably posted this before but this seems like a good place to repeat it –
If you have one billion$ invested in anything and get a ridiculously low 1% annual return – you will be getting paid over $1000/hr, every hour of every day.
Asleep or awake.
… and even if you have to pay taxes on that, at the end of the day you still have the original one billion to fall back on.
At $1000 an hour… 24/7, loosing perspective seems almost inevitable.
It is the sort of wealth that creates more wealth just by existing. It is like a fire that becomes so hot, any water sprayed on it converts back into oxygen and hydrogen creating more fire.
Carting that a Billionaire might have to pay more taxes is like worrying about the sun burning out.
Expecting that a Billionaire could emphathize with you is like thinking that the sun could empathize with you as well.
*yes, you can always find AN exception to anything. It’s a big universe. Somewhere there is an empathetic sun.
I once had the opportunity to slide down a fireman’s pole (not a euphemism). I was told that I had obviously never done it before because experienced people’s hands don’t squeak as they slide down
In related/unrelated news: I’m really getting close to the end of draft 1.
There is a fruit basket.
Ha!
I knew it!
It really ties the room together.
There. Ordered flowers for both my mom and mom-in-law to be delivered next week. I’m the good daughter… wait.
I might be the only child, and child-in-law. I guess that makes me both the good and evil child.
Just letting you know, Rhett and Van are party poopers 😉
My first thought it was some of kind of club for smashing stuff.
And yet, you went with reality
I do tend to do that.
THWACK
You wanted me to go with the rage swimmers/sperm angle?
Now there’s an out-of-context comment.
Hubby’s working late tonight. Boooooo
IDGAF about Kelly Clarkson, but this is a really good cover of a great Radiohead song. A shame that she did an abridged version. I do love that she sang the line, “We hope that you choke” to her TV audience.
Too few guitar necks for it to be Michael Angelo Batio.
Stolen from a friend:
The reason sex with a vampire doesn’t usually result in pregnancy isn’t because their sperm is dead, it’s because the vampire can’t come inside without an invitation.
Ooof.
Is it just me or does this look like it will be bloody shite:
It looks pretty typically Mike Myers. I’ve always been meh on most of his stuff anyway.
I still haven’t forgiven him for “Goldmember”
IDK. I really like most of Mike Meyers stuff. Hopefully he learned his lesson with The Guru and this will be descent. I’ll definitely give it a whirl.
Ironically, in my I read Van’s “bloody shite” comment in an over-the-top Mike Myers fake accent.
New Rammstein album out today.
You guys got your copy yet?
No.
Nein
Aren’t they one of the original “scream rock” bands?
I recall first hearing them on a Trent Reznor-produced compilation soundtrack (David Lynch’s Lost Highway). They were amusing with their guttural German accents, but I was utterly shocked when they stormed the US mainstream a few years after.
I’d call them more of an Industrial Metal outfit. Do they have screams in their music? I’m only aware of the deep-voiced spoken word, barks, and clean singing.
I get their appeal – – the image is risque and goth. The songs are darkly fun and quirky. I don’t hate Rammstein at all, but I’m not a fan.
(Did I overdo it? I sometimes overdo it with this stuff.)
I like Rammstein fine. I have a handful of songs, but no albums. I’d definitely see them in concert as their live shows, I’ve heard, are over the top.
They’re a recent discovery, but I like what I’ve heard. It seems like a guy from the Sales Dept and a guy from IT made a band based on their mutual love of Sisters of Mercy and Depeche Mode.
Given the nature of the song, that doesn’t seem like something that was ever likely.
Outtakes from Big Trouble in Little China. Couldn’t think of a better place to drop this link. Unless of course this was already shared here back in 2021 and I’m just late to the party as usual.
Finally got around to watching Old Guard. Finally.
It’s fine. I’d be down for more.
Took the fam to a video game con today. Slightly spur of the moment.
Great great fun and silliness for all. Also extremely weird.
Well, weirder than usual.
Watched a video about the end of Game of Thrones and how terrible it was.
And I’m irrationally angry again and how terrible that #@$)%*#@)$*@#)$(@#)$* ending was.
Such a waste.
By all appearances, the GoT showrunners just rushed the ending so they could move on to their planned Star Wars trilogy.
We’ll never know what went down between these guys and Disney (there is an official story), but in my preferred theory, Disney cancel their Star Wars project as a reaction to their mishandling of the last 2 GoT seasons.
Having rewatched the series a couple of times, I’ve softened a bit on the ending. It still wasn’t a great ending, but one could tell there were seeds planted on Daenerys’ good/evil nature. Teresa and I have mused that if that was the note they wanted to end GOT on, maybe it would have been better if Jon Snow joined her cause and together they would rule Westros with iron fists.
I don’t know if I agree with that last point… It seems like it would have been 100% counter to everything Ned and Jon ever were to have him turn evil.
“It seems like it would have been 100% counter to everything Ned and Jon ever were to have him turn evil.”
And I agree, my point being if they wanted the shock of Daenerys turning evil, might as well commit and have Jon Snow go that path as well.
I wanted Walter Wise to show up and kill everyone.
Morning Pan
Finished season four of Castlevania last night. Sorry to see it end. Hopefully the spin off will be just as good
Holy crap, the Abe Lincoln TOS episode is bad.
Season 3 has been quite the mixed bag. Only 2 episodes remaining!
I really liked that one as a kid. Maybe I shouldn’t rewatch it as an adult.
I can confirm that if you don’t want to catch Covid flying is for now something to still avoid.
Hardly anybody wore masks, we were all crowded into a bus to get to the terminal in Amsterdam and a lot of people were not wearing masks on the flight to Detroit.
Enjoy Ohio! The weather and spring scenery should be perfect right now.
And enjoy your birthday, ya big galoot!
Thank you.
Happy Birthday, Van! Don’t be the fifth dead in Ohio.
My latest article. Would love feedback before I publicize it to the unwashed masses!
I can’t argue with your logic. There are plenty of guitarists who can shred, but only a few who can play with emotion, and fewer still who can raise it as an art form that could rightfully be called a composition. Satriani is on that peak.
Thank you, sir!
The only place I expect you to get heavy pushback is for the list of other great guitar players. Be prepared for a torrent of “let me tell you why … belongs in that list, and why you are a monster for leaving them out”.
BTW, let me tell you why Alex Lifeson belongs on that list…
Thank you! Yeah, I’m prepared for some grousing.
I recall trying to jam “Vital Signs” with a bassist buddy, and being absolutely defeated by Alex’s “simple” rhythm guitar parts. The bassist could handle Geddy’s sections, I just couldn’t hold up my end. Alex’s greatest skill is making it look easy.
Imagine being as amazing as Alex Lifeson and being the least talented guy in the Rush!
Well there’s your problem right there. Should have started out with something simpler, like La Villa Strangiato. I think the time signature in that one only changes a half a dozen times or so.
Sadly, my depth of knowledge in this Dept would scarcely get your feet wet.
That being said, “Surfing with the Alien” is the one, “Featured Guitarist” album that I own.
So we spent over $700 to frame our Sandra Chevrier limited prints at Michaels. That was with a 70% discount applied. Custom framing is pricey.
The dollar store also has frames. . .
I guess I could have bought some two-way tape.
We have three books coming out between now and August. No wonder I’m so frikken busy.
Sorry, not three, four. You’d think I’d learn how to count.
Finally got to see Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, it was worth the wait.
That’s one I definitely plan to see. At some point.
Putin dies and goes to hell, but after a while, he is given a day off for good behavior.
So he goes to Moscow, enters a bar, orders a drink, and asks the bartender:
-Is Crimea ours?
-Yes, it is.
-And the Donbas?
-Also ours.
-And Kyiv?
-We got that too.
Satisfied, Putin drinks, and asks:
-Thanks, how much do I owe you?
-5 euros.
A bonus crap joke:
A guy sees a sign in front of a house: “Talking Dog for Sale.” He rings the bell and the owner tells him the dog is in the backyard.
The guy goes into the backyard and sees a black mutt just sitting there.
“You talk?” he asks.
“Yep,” the mutt replies.
“So, what’s your story?”
The mutt looks up and says, “Well, I discovered my gift of talking pretty young and I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA about my gift, and in no time they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping. I was one of their most valuable spies eight years running.
The jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn’t getting any younger and I wanted to settle down. So I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security work, mostly wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings there and was awarded a batch of medals. Had a wife, a mess of puppies, and now I’m just retired.”
The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog.
The owner says, “Ten dollars.”
The guy says, “This dog is amazing. Why on earth are you selling him, so cheap?”
The owner replies, “He’s just a big liar. He didn’t do any of that stuff.”
I’m on my walk. A woman just approached me and asked if I had a cigarette she could buy from me. Since I don’t smoke, it was a moot question, but I found it strange all the same
Maybe she thought you were a spy and that was start of the code phrase..
Ok, a question about window sills.
Where you live do the bedroom windows have large or small window sills?
The house I live in, almost all the windows (bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and downstairs toilet) have window sills large enough to store stuff on them.
The house I grew up in had some decent windowsills, but not large enough to store stuff.
I haven’t seen many houses in AZ with windowsills.
Our windowsills are large enough for a cat to sit in and that’s about it
I’m assuming you mean interior sills. From what I’ve seen, it depends on the country and the year the house was made. At least in NA, it’s become less common to put/store stuff on sills, so there’s no need or desire to make them bigger. I’ve seen it in much older houses though. Anything less than 40 years old and I’d be shocked if there were big sills in the house.
I’m thinking that might have had something to do with wall thickness? I know that older homes sometimes had thicker walls to provide better insulation given the insulating technology of their time.
Also they often had real honest-to-goodness 2” x 4” studs in the walls. Add lath board and plaster on top of that and those made the wall thicker. Thicker walls would give you a larger window sills.
I would agree with this. In Florida, many of the homes are made with concrete block. Thus, my window sills are just slightly less thick than a concrete block.
It was time.
Johnny Fever listening to Pink Floyd on WKRP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPABesa7wcE
Third-sies! 😀
I put down a deposit for a steam deck.
Gulp!
At least this one might actually arrive at some point unlike the ominous silence from the makers of Play date.
We watched, and enjoyed Army of Thieves last night. I know it’s supposed to be a prequel to Army of the Dead, but it wasn’t a zombie movie at all. If you like heist movies, I’d recommend it
I too have seen that one. At the time I didn’t even know it was zombie related.
It’s fun.
I preferred Army of Thieves and was disappointed that Army of the Dead didn’t continue with the characters. Also, that final vault was so disappointing after the designs in Thieves.
I was going to get a hair cut today but, at -26 (-34 with the wind chill) I have decided it’s too cold to leave the house
You could just wet your hair and use a hammer, at those temps.
I too have an appointment for a haircut today.
Anyone else?
One of us
one of us
one of us
No, for obvious reasons.
An appointment….for a …. haircut?
Can’t say as I’ve ever had such a thing.
I usually wake up one day, see myself in the mirror and go “Damn, I need a haircut”…then head out and get one.
Happy Twosday. 2-22-22
Goodbye to the guy who played Gehn in the Myst sequel:
https://boingboing.net/2022/02/22/myst-actor-and-record-breaking-runner-john-keston-dead-at-97.html
CP: Rockstar — Momma
Nice Veruca Salt vibe to this.
CW: From – Episode 1
Well that was very creepy.
Episode 2 it is.
Wow.
RIP Mark Lanegan.
What a distinct voice we’ve lost.
https://pitchfork.com/news/mark-lanegan-screaming-trees-and-queens-of-the-stone-age-singer-dies-at-57/
Truly a rock icon in breadth and depth. The number of projects he was a part of as well as the number of artists he guested with is truly astounding.
Why canon in sci-fi doesn’t exist:
https://t.co/yv3Xe31I1W
That was…a whole lot of words that didn’t really say anything.
Jesus fuck Ed you read all that!?
Ed is doing penance for things he can’t admitt to …
Otherwise we would all be dissapeared.
Thank you Ed.
It’s a response to gatekeepers saying you aren’t a true fan of a certain genre if you haven’t read the ‘classics’.
I get that he was trying to say that….but I don’t think he succeeded per se. If anything, it came across as more of a general dismissal of SF as not “real literature” hence, no canon.
This new Oceans of Slumber song is just beautiful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycvs7QnCvno
New!?
Goodbye to Gary Brooker:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/breaking-gary-brooker-dead-procol-26294526?fbclid=IwAR2oXXWg4fAgIJnLSktXgzYu4b7PCqbyrehzMi-houMPXaO8H6aqOjulFtY
Crap joke for the evening:
Q. What’s the difference between in-laws and outlaws?
A. Outlaws are wanted.
History of the club sandwich:
http://passionatefoodie.blogspot.com/2022/02/a-history-of-club-sandwich-part-1.html?m=1
There is a new season of “Stranger Things?”
And you guys didn’t tell me about it?
Well I knew it was coming but it’s still not on Netflix in the UK.
When does it release here in the States?
27th May for Volume 1
I’m pretty sure I saw it on Netflix last night…
But maybe I was just seeing the preview ?
Did you miss a season ?
Ah I see now
Vol 1 – May 27
Vol 2 – July 1st
Medieval photoshop:
https://leidenmedievalistsblog.nl/articles/medieval-photoshop#40959
Even though it’s still stupid cold today, I decided to chop my locks anyway.
Ok, now Steam isn’t even pretending. At least with some, the titles are more obscure to the game theme. But when “Elf Wives Cheat to Ride My Meat” is recommended, you know they have given up trying.
Drow?
It got a little weird when those elf wives started getting into orcs.
CP: Dive For You — BOOM BOOM SATELLITES
CW: All Our Yesterdays – ST:TOS
You know S3 gets a lot of stick but this is a cracking episode.
Yes I did read the sequels by A C Crispin
I thought the makers of Futurama were silly for announcing a new season without having John DiMaggio fully onboard first (thereby giving him a lot of power of negotiation). This whopper makes that seem like a minor faux pas.
https://geektyrant.com/news/the-cast-of-star-trek-didnt-know-a-star-trek-4-announcement-was-coming-and-that-could-be-an-issue
Well that’s awkward.
What if Chris Pine will be busy shooting Wonder Woman 3?
Props for attributing the animation style to Tex Avery as he is one of the all time greats. But I think they drop the ball (most likely intentionally) on attributing much of the interactive idea to the Dragon’s Lair video game. If you watch the preview the concept looks like most of the “hour and a half of animation” is the cat dying because you answered a trivia question wrong (muck like most of the Don Bluth animation in Dragon’s Lair is Dirk dying over and over because you chose the wrong direction or didn’t time your response correctly).
https://geektyrant.com/news/trailer-for-netflixs-tex-avery-inspired-interactive-animated-project-cat-burglar-from-the-creators-of-black-mirror
https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/peacemaker-james-gunn-shares-season-1-gag-reel
Peacemaker bloopers.
These were fun
Goddammit. Not that anyone was surprised.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60503037
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-60454795
Quite surprised how many want to start a nuclear war or how my GOP politicians are supporting Russia.
Oh from 2018 and still relevant:
https://fpif.org/thousands-people-launch-nuclear-war/?fbclid=IwAR3xdDfvs_1XfigyRDV1A_SZTBSKfVGqInJJ6ykJ29yz0dpaSVDkPKwBPmc
Nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to D.C. Republicans or their bootlicker supporters.
Awwww:
https://t.co/CVBGkL5Lfl
I heard a few excited gasps in the theater. Maybe those were just from me.
once again, my life is exciting. Just finished filing my taxes.
https://www.loudersound.com/news/that-darkness-inside-us-needs-to-find-its-way-out-tobias-forges-track-by-track-guide-to-the-new-ghost-album-impera
For the Ghost fans.
Ah Tobias…. speak on my friend.
Goodbye to Sally Kellerman:
https://t.co/t98tNDHLYj
You know I could have swore she wasn’t in Star Trek but she bloody was.
Some good games for PS subscribers in March:
https://www.simplegamer.co.uk/sony-announces-playstation-plus-games-for-march-2022/#:~:text=March%202022’s%20PlayStation%20Plus%20games%20will%20be%20available,Assault%20On%20Dragon%20Keep%3A%20A%20Wonderlands%20One-Shot%20Adventure.
Off to the city this morning. Hopefully the road are clear. We go a fair amount of snow over the last couple of days
Brave. A waste. Awful for their loved ones. But if a soldier has to go, then I guess this is the way to do it.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/25/ukraine-soldiers-told-russians-to-go-fuck-yourself-before-black-sea-island-death
I wish there were anyway to confirm these stories. Or maybe not, because for every one story that might be fabricated you know there will be many many who die in anonimity doing horrifically brave things.
I read another about a solder who stopped an advancing Russian tank Collum by running onto the bridge and setting off the demolition charges while on the bridge.
When this finally ends, Putin should be arrested and prosecuted.
Hard to tell, the Snake Island lot may have actually surrended (even the Ukrainians admitting that), if so good for them.
On a lighter note. . . .
TIL: All of the spaceships on the Boston album covers are actually spaceships.
I should have checked these more closely when I was younger, but oh well. Don’t look back.
What are you talking about man? They are guitars that look like alien spaceships.
Yeh, I’ve got more then a fealing that can’t be right.
Well I see it now!
Part of the reason the Atari Lynx failed was it’s shitty battery life, so nothing new here then :
https://www.theverge.com/22950371/valve-steam-deck-review
Now here’s a what if that I could go for
https://youtu.be/FWqtDajCFCc
This guy’s subscriber count is simply criminal. He’s been churning out some fantastic animation.
Great premise.
So there was a Chess tournament held in Gibraltar:
https://t.co/TzgsHMZuEw
How to be calm at the end of the world:
https://t.co/KWH4tf8TEB
When I agreed to be on the board for the CDN SF Hall of Fame, nobody told me there would be so much homework.
so. much. research
William Shatner was born in Montreal in 1931, if that helps.
Leonard Nimoy died this day in 2015:
Leonard Nemoy doesn’t qualify. He isn’t Canadian
Neil Peart: Born September 12, 1952 in Hamilton. He should count as he’s written a metric asston of sci-fi themed songs.
He’s co-author on the “Clockwork Angels” books with Kevin J Anderson!
Yesterday was my busiest day in years.
RenFaire all day. Huzzah! It was as crowded as the worst day I’d ever seen at Disneyland. All outdoors, except the mermaid exhibit, and they required masks and social distancing in there. The girls had fun.
I did feel for the regulars. (The NY RenFaire was briefly a big deal for me, many eons ago.) The hordes of mundanes (including us) must have been rough.
And then a Bruce Dickinson spoken word show at night. Which was great (although Henry Rollins does it better).
So two big events with big crowds in one day. The numbers and official guidelines say I’m good (because I’m boosted) – – it just feels weird.
Well, fuck!
https://www.reddit.com/r/Wellthatsucks/comments/t2rso8/antonov_an225_mriya_the_biggest_aircraft_so_far/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Had a beer with a buddy tonight. He and his wife are friends with a family that lives in the Ukraine between the airfield the antonov was in and a fighter base.
My friend is trying to get the paperwork through to get that family’s daughter out, to come live with them. The dad is undergoing treatment for cancer and can’t leave. His wife will stay there with him.
There really aren’t words. Or maybe it is all the words. Either way-
Fuck Putin.
And fuck anyone who is rooting for Putin.
https://www.ign.com/articles/comixology-update-controversy-amazon-digital-comics
I am glad that I’m not the only one who hates the Amazonification of Comixology. Even Patton Oswalt has chimed in.
(I realize where this fits in the grand scheme of things to be upset about)
I’m pretty unhappy about it.
One thing missing in the article and other complaints is that you can no longer backup purchases. That used to allow you to download a .cbz or .pdf of many titles. Obviously that isn’t in line with Amazon’s stance that you don’t own your purchases, so it is gone with this upgrade.
I’ve heard and agree with this complaint too. I’m shocked Amazon has never had a major competitor rise up on that platform: “If you buy it, you own it. We won’t take it away from you.”
Peacemaker/Encanto mashup:
https://youtu.be/ImmhEyZGMEg
Looks like the new Batman movie is getting generally favorable reviews. At 3 hours though, I’d rather watch it at home than in a theatre. I guess I’ll be waiting for streaming options to check it out.
Holy strained bladder, Batman!
Yeah, as promising as it looks, I think I’m likely to wait for the home theater on this one as well. I may go out for Multiverse of Madness.
I’m on holiday next week so will probably go and see it at the cinema.
I’ll continually watch films at home no matter what.
Marc Maron: Did you see Power of the Dog, did you see that movie?
Sam Elliott: Yeah do you wanna talk about that piece of shit?
Marc: [ohh noo] You didn’t like that one?
Sam: Fuck no.
Morning Pan
I think kitty has a sore tooth. I’m going to call the vet this morning and see if I can get her in.
Neat deep space photo:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/space-telescope-captures-a-glittering-triangular-tug-of-war-180979640/
Cool, this gets me excited about what we’ll see from the Webb telescope.
March 16th for the Netflix Marvel shows to be on Disney+:
https://t.co/uk3Pr8rqjU
Let the continued… “Sooooo are these part of the MCU or not?” debate continue.
This post brought to you by the Department of the Redundancy Department….
Think you are safe punk? Well do ya?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7hOpT0lPGI
Had this conversation the other night. For all of the mental deficiencies in the US and Soviet leaders of the 80s, in hindsight, they were pretty clearly never going to just go off half-cocked and push the button.
Recent US and Russian leadership? Yeah, I don’t have the same confidence.
But what are ya gonna do?
In the book Dead Hand, there is a story about Brezhnev watching an exercise for a nuclear launch where he had to press a button that was not actually linked to missiles launching.
Brezhnev was nervous it would lead to an actual
launch so the Generals had to keep telling him
It was fine to press the button…
Yeah. For many of those leaders and generals, up until the 80s, they had actual exposure to war and its consequences. Now… not so much.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_in_the_Woods
The eldest daughter loves this game. She’s obsessed. It has quite the backstory and tragic real life meta story too.
IS this one you gamers have played?
I don’t think it was on my radar. I’ve added omit to my Steam wishlist
I had heard of it, put it on my steam wish list. It’s also out on iOS for 4.99.
Bender is coming home:
http://thr.cm/cHw7Y59
How did I get so busy all of a sudden?
When working on a collection of short stories, you can sure tell the American authors from any of the others. They are the ones missing u’s in their words as well as spelling words er instead of re
This just means extra work for me as I fix them all.
Those fuckres
The soundtrack for a spy movie that does not exist:
https://youtu.be/vbxfYGtu6YU
I like the song.
Not so much the video.
This one is more my style:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFursscG_Oc
First real concert in years. According to the CDC and the experts and the observations from the medical professionals in my life, I’m good.
Volbeat/Ghost co-headlining. Unfortunately, Volbeat didn’t close the show, so I had to hear their entire set. Eh, they were fine. Ghost, however, put on an amazing performance. It was good to be back.
Wear your N95 and increase the odds in your favor.
Looks like it might be fun:
https://youtu.be/V3nv0AQNzPU
I don’t see this going over well.
https://geektyrant.com/news/amc-theaters-is-charging-extra-for-tickets-to-see-the-batman
Their argument = concerts and sporting events work by having you pay extra for better seats and more popular bands/teams, therefore we should be able to do the same thing with movies.
The problem (IMHO) = if all other theaters don’t take the same approach people will just go to see a more popular movie in a great seat at a different theater for less money.
Another point here.
If the theatre charges me more for a “better” seat, in my mind they have just accepted responsibility for a “better” experience.
If someone nearby is talking or carrying on, I will be asking for a refund.
Also, f$&@ that.
I will wait and watch it at home with my own cocktail, snacks, bathroom.
Theatres are correct in thinking that they need to evolve … but making the experience WORSE (in this case financially) is not the direction to head in.
“Theatres are correct in thinking that they need to evolve … but making the experience WORSE (in this case financially) is not the direction to head in.”
The home experience is pretty amazing right now. What can a theatre offer to sweeten the deal other than (manufactured) early access?
There strengths I can think of are-
-Early release.
-BIG screen.
-Rich surround sound.
-Seating for a LARGE group of your friends.
Somehow they need to leverage that.
Maybe some sort of “box seating” for you and your pals?
I don’t know what else they can do.
And all this after everyone thinking that theaters were not going to survive COVID. I don’t understand the reasoning behind the super rapid transition from what can we do to get more people into the theaters to the power move they are trying now. Maybe back when theaters were still really popular. But not now when they are struggling just to get anyone to go.
I’m curious about the market research that led to this. Was it based on consumer polls or just speculation? Was there a trial run somewhere?
(I didn’t read the article end-to-end, so forgive me if it’s in there)
Excellent point. They claim that they’ve been doing it in Europe for many years. The article also said that they will be rolling this out slowly so I imagine that equates to the Batman movie being their trial run.
Well it will be a dark night before I participate in that!
I need more info, but it looks like the torches and pitchforks for Sam Elliott may be a little bit premature.
https://consequence.net/2022/03/sam-elliott-power-of-the-dog/
I only know what’s here and in a handful of the comments. Sure, I cringe at some of his words, but I don’t get the sense that he’s going full Pence. Or even half-Pence. According to one commenter, he also praised “Brokeback Mountain” and past Jane Campion films. So maybe he just has a huge beef with this “Power of the Dog” movie?
Check it out, meatbags:
https://www.polygon.com/entertainment/22957206/futurama-will-be-returning-with-bender-after-all
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2022/03/01/very-quick-thoughts-on-brandon-sandersons-mega-kickstarter/
Interesting. Maybe only to me.
No, I found it interesting too.
I know nothing about who knows who in the whole SF/F author realm…but has Scalzi never heard of Scott Sigler? While obviously not Kickstarter per se, seems he’s mostly made his career out of that kind of publishing model.
I’m sure he has, but he was answering a different question, imo.
Interesting non-spoiler review of “The Batman”
https://www.slashfilm.com/785591/robert-pattinsons-batman-is-ripped-straight-from-some-of-the-best-comics-ever-printed/
This makes me want to see it. I’ll wait for streaming though.
Crap joke for the day:
Why couldn’t the dwarves renew their lease on the Lonely Mountain?
It failed the Smaug test.
Tell crap jokes and smash the plates.
That’s what Bilbo Baggins hates!
Sometimes work is all whiskey and cheesecake.
Sometimes it all be like Bam! Lulled you in a false sense of security. We’re gonna make you hate your life.
Then sometimes, like today, it falls somewhere in between.
At least you can put whiskey and cheesecake on your resume.
Just let it dry first.
Ranker might be the worst of the worst for clickbait, but I found some of these interesting:
https://www.ranker.com/list/fight-club-behind-the-scenes/mike-mcgranaghan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey7wubGP3A8&list=RD9YdKx-ZVbxo&index=17
Joseph Joseph / Les Doigts de l’Homme featuring Sébastien Félix
I could listen to this all day. They’re all great, but the older guy just kills it.
Pictures of the AN-225. I think any hopes of getting it back in the air are pretty well dashed now.
https://vidhaatha.com/the-300-billion-plane-is-now-like-this
Ugh. Power listening to an audiobook for errors is time consuming and more exhausting than you’d think.
JW: Picard S2E1
Yesssss!
Oh dear:
https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/sean-hannity-proposes-nato-fighter-jets-bomb-russian-convoy-and-then-nobody-takes
And this is exactly the kind of completely fucking stupid idea I would expect from that jackass.
Anytime I see a post about Hannity I feal Blige to post the following information. This allows the reader some perspective about puting any weight behind anything he says.
Here is Hannity’s Resume:
-private High School. Now closed.
-House Painter in Ca.
-Unemployed House Painter.
-Hate Radio, talk show host in Al.
-Fox TV Show Host
-trump policy Advisor
That’s it.
No college. Not even continuing Education Economic or History Classes.
A brand new gaming store in Scottsdale. I went in to check it out last weekend.
The place was packed! – – but it was about 70 dudes playing Warhammer at 10 different tables, with one table dedicated to Magic: The Gathering.
There was one corner with a small selection of tabletop games, but otherwise, almost their entire inventory was dedicated to Warhammer and other games like that.
Is this the future of nerdy tabletop gaming?
Meanwhile, AZ Game Depot, one of the better gaming stores in town, is closing down. Apparently it’s owner retirement, so at least their story ends happily.
Now the only good one left (that I know of) is Imperial Outpost, over on Rhett’s side of town.
Yeah, Imperial is still going strong. There is a newer, but smaller game store by the Stadiums that seems pretty cool. Goat Games or something.
That’s been about what I’ve seen in the gaming stores in Orlando. I used to belong to a group that played table top games every other Saturday. Every time we tried playing in a gaming store it was us in a back room and metric asston of Warhammer people.
https://www.gizmoplex.com/browse
Free sign-up at the new MST3K site.
The Gizmoplex is mostly a rebranding of the old MST3K site at this point. There should be the first episode of the new season (Santo in the Treasure of Dracula) in week or two. I’m at a kickstarter pledge level where I’ve seen the episode and had a tour of what the Gizmoplex is going to look like when they get it fully ramped up in May or so. It will be pretty cool and there will be ways to have group watch parties. BTW, they really changed up the intro quite a bit and the feel is a bit different as they were forced to transition to really small sets with greenscreens.
Speaking of hokey terribleness. . . 3 eps into TOS S3. Paradise Syndrome is playing right now. Kirk loses his memory and a Native American tribe on another planet think he’s a god.
As bad as Spock’s Brain was, it’s a thousand times better than this one.
S3, E2: The Enterprise Incident, was actually pretty excellent.
https://www.polygon.com/22961714/spirited-away-stage-play-photos
Wow.
Well if the intelligence pundits are to be believed, the Russian army will collapse by Sunday.
Fingers crossed and all that.
Sounds too easy. And sounds dangerous as long as Vlad still has access to power.
https://www.stereogum.com/2178642/watch-sting-play-newly-relevant-russians-in-support-of-help-ukraine/news/
IMO – if his military collapses and all he has left is lobbing Nukes… we’re in for an even worse time.
This only ends well with regime change.
On that note- Zelenskiy is claiming that the last 3 death attempts to send death squads to get him, were thwarted by direct Intel from within the Russian FSB.
If true, this gives hope that Putin could soon meet with an “accident”.
Shows what they know
Even before I’d started this TOS full watch, I’d thought that “And the Children Shall Lead” was the all-time worst episode. I still have most of S3 to go, but after rewatching, I think it’s going to keep that title. “Spock’s Brain” is The Godfather, in comparison.
It’s unfortunate that one can’t temporarily forget all they have seen AFTER these were made. I think it would soften the perception of them.
I sheilded my young ones from seeing any sci-fi until I felt they were old enough to watch/ grasp TOS. They were in elementary school.
Then we did what Jack is doing and watching it through their eyes was magical.
With nothing to compare it to, they took it for what it was and not for what it wasn’t or what it could be.
I guess we can never really go back.
Goodbye to Mitchell Ryan, he played Minnie Driver’s Dad in Grosse Pointe Blank:
https://t.co/gMbwutx701
For a second I read that as “Michelle” Ryan and Im like WTF!
Happy birthday, Lo Pan!
A super happy birthday you god wanna be you!
Happy Lo Birthday!
JW: No Exit
On Hulu in the US, Disney+ outside, a not too shabby crime thriller.
David Gilmour is 76 today!
Hey longevity scientists, how’s that immortality serum coming along?
Cheers all! Appreciate it
Crap joke for the day:
A defendant was on trial for murder. There was strong evidence indicating guilt, but there was no corpse. In the defense’s closing statement the lawyer, knowing that his client would probably be convicted, resorted to a trick.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I have a surprise for you all,” the lawyer said as he looked at his watch. “Within one minute, the person presumed dead in this case will walk into this courtroom.” He looked toward the courtroom door. The jurors, somewhat stunned, all looked on eagerly. A minute passed.
Nothing happened.
Finally the lawyer said, “Actually, I made up the previous statement. But you all looked on with anticipation. I therefore put to you that you have a reasonable doubt in this case as to whether anyone was killed and insist that you return a verdict of not guilty.”
The jury, clearly confused, retired to deliberate. A few minutes later, the jury returned and pronounced a verdict of guilty.
“But how?” inquired the lawyer. “You must have had some doubt; I saw all of you stare at the door.”
The jury foreman replied: “Oh, we did look, but your client didn’t.”
More outrage for the Comixology debacle.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/473-after-dark-amazon-destroys-comixology/id619925254?i=1000552259080&
(I haven’t listened. Two hours and nineteen minutes!)
We watched West Side Story on the weekend. Usually I’m a fan of musicals but this one just didn’t click for me. It had all the elements. Beautiful set. Music. Dance numbers. but still…
John said he didn’t really feel any chemistry between the two main actors. Maybe that’s it. *shrug*
That guy was great in Baby Driver and like a plank of wood in WSS.
Off to the city this morning.
*sigh*
https://god.dailydot.com/airbnb-customers-complain-twitter/
Interesting. We had a good VRBO experience, but we’ve only done it the one time. There are definitely still some advantages over hotels, but good points are made.
I had a good experience with them some years back. I get the sense that was early in the game though and those who participated were people who were listing properties that were already short time rentals and the owners were actually “professional” about it.
Now it seems over run with grifters and those who have no intention(or ability) of providing a good experience. They are just trying to grab some of that cash.
JW: The Batman
Agree about it being overlong, but thought it was pretty good.
Ended up taking the day off. This just means twice as much work tomorrow
Take that, future you!
https://www.stereogum.com/2178522/the-number-ones-lisa-loeb-nine-stories-stay-i-missed-you/columns/the-number-ones/
Oh, the memories.
The article also correctly points out that the music of this era that mattered to us rarely charted. I check in on this ongoing column, and the Billboard number 1s for most of the 90s were utter Pop ballad drivel garbage. And markedly NOT Garbage.
Quite like that Lisa Loeb track.
/shrugs
I’ve never seen “Reality Bites.”
I’ve also never seen the movie. I didn’t care much for the song back then, but it’s impossible to dislike now.
Definitely transports me back.
I like “Stay” but I have a weird feeling whenever I consider the songs of that era. A lot of overplayed sad women folk songs in the day. Do you know where your cowboys have gone?
Some of those Lilith Faire lineups were pretty good.
Yeah, that’s the thing. I like female singers, I like folk music, it just seemed to me that radio stations were trying to make a scene happen, rather than let it grow organically.
I get what you are saying–and you aren’t really wrong–but let’s not overlook the number of women rockers from that era too. Bikini Kill, Tracy Bonham, The Breeders, Liz Phair, Elastica, Garbage, just to name a few. And I like quite a few of the “sad women folk songs” too.
I think what we’re all saying is this:
Jewel was fucking terrible.
Tish and Pish, Jewell has throaty voice that adds to her records.
Well if we are naming names …
Courtney Barnett makes me want to violently destroy my audio gear.
I’m a guy who likes “unique” vocal styles but hers just makes me HATE to the point of rage!
CP: Running from Wolves — Shireen
Farhad Hussain deserves more recognition. This is a near-perfect Tears for Fears cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GPYqJ5aufo
Sleep is for wimps
My new iPhone is supposed to be delivered today. That’s something, I guess.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU-MYe0SL9Q
Slow down a Chipmunks New Wave album and you get The Cure. Some of these are amazing.
1.) Call Me
2.) Walk Like An Egyptian
3.) Heaven Is A Place On Earth
4.) Diamond Dolls
5.) You Keep Me Hanging On
6.) My Sharona
7.) Always On My Mind
8.) Refugee
This could be the cure for Chipmunk songs.
Crap joke for the day:
An engineer dies and reports to the pearly gates. St. Peter checks his dossier and says, “Ah, you’re an engineer — you’re in the wrong place.”
So, the engineer reports to the gates of hell and is let in. Pretty soon, the engineer gets dissatisfied with the level of comfort in hell, and starts designing and building improvements. After awhile, they’ve got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and the engineer is a pretty popular guy.
One day, God calls Satan up on the telephone and says with a sneer, “So, how’s it going down there in hell?”
Satan replies, “Hey, things are going great. We’ve got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and there’s no telling what this engineer is going to come up with next.”
God replies, “What??? You’ve got an engineer? That’s a mistake — he should never have gotten down there; send him up here.”
Satan says, “No way. I like having an engineer on the staff, and I’m keeping him.”
God says, “Send him back up here or I’ll sue.”
Satan laughs uproariously and answers, “Yeah, right. And just where are YOU going to get a lawyer?”
Little known fact – engineers have to be able to recite this joke from memory to earn their diplomas.
It never gets old.
I finally finished The Expanse Season 6. I rather enjoyed it.
Oo, let’s argue!!
I’m kidding. I do look forward to doing a full series rewatch in the next year or so.
Some minor issues here and there but … I have become a full-on, Expanse fan boy.
Yep. Me too. I’ve only read the first book, but I plan on going back and catching up. Overall, it’s one of the best SF series that I’ve seen.
I enjoy it when the high school senior declares at 11:15pm that she needs to print stuff for school tomorrow. . .
. . . When the dead old printer’s corpse is still plugged in, and it’s refurbed replacement is still sitting in the box it arrived in yesterday.
You forgot the …not!
I’m laughing but only because I have been there.
Bloody hell:
https://t.co/m1evriXQLN
Explains a lot.
Endurance: Shackleton’s lost ship is found in Antarctic:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60662541
The title is sarcastic:
https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/
Web3 is bs vaporware
CP: Bow Down — Leah Andreone
Stealing Van’s crap joke thunder:
Woman: Do you have any batteries?
Clerk: Yes, come this way (wiggles finger).
Woman: If I could come that way, I wouldn’t need batteries.
https://consequence.net/2022/03/teaser-trailer-obi-wan-kenobi-watch/
Obi-Wan trailer
Awesome. 😀
I can’t imagine the series can be as good as the trailer. But I still have high hopes.
Marshmellow pie in the sky.
I have faith in Ewan
May is looking really good this year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxuyzk5DUFc
So according to an article in the new scientist, if you have a a garden and a slug/snail problem, make balls of bread dough and leave them
In the garden. The slugs/snail will home in on the dough, allowing you to collect them and dispose of them.
Personally I just let my little garden run wild and leave the slugs/nails to themselves.
+s
I admit, it was touch and go for a few days there but, today I think I may actually survive the week
You been ill?
Shingles
I didn’t realize! 🙁 I thought you just meant you were overworked/overstressed.
I do hope you feel better asap.
Nice job on the latest Tyche email, btw.
Ouch! Hope you get well soon.
Oh, not fun. Feel better Bunny!
That sucks.
Hope the worst is behind you.
The untold story of the John Carter film:
https://t.co/Eiayl6cZxG
Started to read. Fascinating that it could have been the first feature cartoon before Snow White, if talks hadn’t fallen through.
I thought John Carter was fine. It reminded me a lot of Attack of the Clones as a messy big-screen CGI action fest. I’d have been glad to have more sequels.
I’m watching it tonight, bloody hell a pre-breaking Bad Cranston is in this, totally forgotten that.
Free story:
http://nicolekornherstace.com/mulberry-down/
Whoa:
https://www.polygon.com/22969702/rear-window-board-game-funko-games-announcement-release-date-price
CP: Fortune Days — The Glitch Mob
I find it amusing to think of The US government playing Pokémon
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-us-government-now-owns-a-pokemon-card-worth-57000/1100-6501365/?ftag=NLS-04-10aaa1d
No government would ever capture, imprison, enslave, and commodify sentient beings to use for their own violent amusement!
Because it would infringe on corporations right to do so?
Currently in Denver. Been here about 6 hours and I have such a headache.
I forgot how little oxygen you Cloud dwellers need.
I don’t get headaches when I’m there but I do pee more.
Go figure..
There is a lot of that but I assumed it was do to all the water I am drinking.
People keep telling me my head won’t hurt so much if I drink a lot of water.
Would that “water” be 80 proof with a twist of lime? That’ll get the bladder going.
Ha! I wish.
Head is much better this morning.
Think I’ll avoid the alcohol though. At least a few more days. I’m afraid it might bring back the headache.
Shame too because this place is swimming in craft beer!
You think it’s bad now, wait til 4/20.
That probably comes with less headache ?
Sunny but cold day.
Taking my eldest around for her Birthday. Visited a pet store to get her supplies for her Hermit Crabs (only pet her landlord will allow).
Went to an area called Arvada (sp?) which seemed nice. Visited a greenhouse and got a lovely, hanging plant.
Stopped in her favorite Disc Golf shop “Another Round”. Got her a disc and one for me that she is going to hand dye for my Birthday 🙂
Having a nice visit. Learning to live with less oxygen.
https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/wolverine-oral-history-x-men?utm_source=pocket-newtab
The history of Wolverine.
I’ve always found the phrase “oral history” to be slightly dirty.
Professor XXX?
You weren’t expecting to face “that” in the Danger Room.
Is Storm controlling the weather or is it getting hot in here?
No, NO I wasn’t thinking that at all!
https://www.rogerebert.com/features/why-we-need-to-talk-about-cosby
Bloodcurdling. I can’t believe that, at this point, anyone sees this as an issue with 2 sides.
I have to admitt that I don’t know any specifics about Cosby’s crimes.
I know the overview, he was convicted of drugging and then rapping a woman (women?).
I don’t know how many, I don’t know when (was it something he did for a decade? Durring the “Cosby Show” years? His whole life?)
I mean, I have heard a bunch of stuff here and there but I don’t think I’ve ever read a detailed accounting of what came out in his trail (trails?).
Don’t know if I need to. Basically, after he was convicted, I wrote him off.
On a happier not I just watched the new Pixar flick on Disney+ called Turning Red.
Great fun, thumbs up from me:
Just finished “The Adam Project”. That was fun, and a lot better than “The Tomorrow War”.
Agreed, enjoyed that.
African Americans and the Manhattan Project:
http://www.atomicheritage.org/history/african-americans-and-manhattan-project
Elton Dan show tonight. Not autocorrect – – it was an Elton John tribute show. The guys singing voice is nothing like the original, but the songs sounded great anyway.
The show ended earlier than expected and right after “Sad Songs,” which felt weird. And I didn’t need “Candle in the Wind,” but it seems strange to do an Elton John set without it. I DID need “Funeral for a Friend/Loves Lies Bleeding” and I didn’t get those either. Oh well. I’d still see Elton Dan again.
At least it concentrates on recent titles but ditching the Cities trilogy for Foundryside..no, no, NO!
https://t.co/8bUd0czU1B
I’ve read 5 of those, only heard of a handful more.
Some of the unknowns are intriguing.
Ah, when the high schooler is frustrated that the ending of 1984 was too lacking in hope.
Every generation must go through this.
As Cyrano says:
Hope is hell.
I can’t fault the logic here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/td375v/batman/
“It’s awfully black, isn’t it?” – Spinal Tap
Goodbye to William Hurt:
https://bit.ly/3i5irBU
Oh no!
So many great roles. “Altered States” gets some oddball love .He was also great as Keanu Reeves’ braindead stoner buddy in I Love You To Death`
And of course, the gory details are coming out now. It seems he committed some heinous acts in the 1980s. Oh well, we can celebrate his great career.
And the 80s was long time ago – – Hopefully he was able to make amends and become a better person in the following decades.
Morning Pan
We re-watched the original Total Recall on the weekend. It’s still silly fun
We started to re-watched the 2012 Judge Dredd film. About halfway through.
The last time I watched it, my reaction was “How the fk did anyone like this??”
But that was awhile ago. I should give it a rewatch.
I do recall that the Colin Farrell remake was completely forgettable. No pun intended.
A short tour of the PDP-11:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/03/a-brief-tour-of-the-pdp-11-the-most-influential-minicomputer-of-all-time/
/Rant
Saw Death on the Nile today, not too bad but bloody fucking hell can we stop AC adaptions, maybe adapt writers from the 21st century..just a thought.
I only found her books in the past decade, so I’m feeling the opposite. I’m good with well-produced adaptations for modern audiences. I liked Murder on the Orient Express, so I’m way down for this one.
I know the pre-Branagh Agatha Christie shows and movies have a loyal fanbase, but they always seemed hopelessly dated to me.
Definitely some odd rumblings from across the pond today. I mean, aside from these couple of Kenneth Branaugh adaptions, I can’t say I’m familiar with any movies made from Agatha Christie’s works in the last few decades.
On the other hand, it seems everything that isn’t a comic book movie is adapted from books written in this century (Hunger Games, Harry Potter, etc,)
They have been tv adaptions over here as well.
Anyway it’s coming to Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US so you can decide for yourself:
https://t.co/XxbuzNieoB
How about adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, Alice in Wonderland, A Princess on Mars, War of the Worlds, etc. Honestly I think we’ve had enough adaptations already of Sherlock Holmes and Alice in Wonderland. I’d like to see more Barsoom movies. And the last version of War of the Worlds was down right atrocious. But I think we can take from a variety of sources and time periods. It’s all in how well it’s executed.
After rewatching John Carter, I wholeheartedly agree about more Barsom flicks.
Having decided there was too much oxygen … we relocated to Breckinridge.
Another day of headaches but that has past. Still trying to catch my breath.
Everytime I think “Dolly Parton is a class act” and there is just nothing more to add to that … she gets even classier.
https://twitter.com/dollyparton/status/1503378691145056258?s=21
So. At the ER with my older daughter. She’s fine, but we’re just getting her checked out to be sure.
She was crossing the street near our home and some sack of shit hit her with his car, then drove off. No one got any info on him, so this POS is off scot free. She was too scared to ID anything about him.
I can only hope he crashed further up the road and was killed without harming anyone else.
And it’s like a fucking off-Broadway play in here, with the cast of eccentric characters. Just waiting for the musical number to begin.
Well I hope your daughter is ok.
Warm wishes to you daughter, Jack
That really sucks Jack.
Hope all is going to be fine.
Jesus that’s awful Jack! I hope she is fine. What a POS.
So this winter there have been no heavy snowfalls, the first time in my life that this has happened.
Yes, there’s actually been less snow than normal here too
Oh look, she can do housework for the first time in several weeks.
I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not. *sigh*
The husband took the wheels of his office chair. I know why he did it but it still makes the chair impossible to move when I want to vacuum.
Now that is something I could not do, I enjoy rolling the around on the wooden floor.
+chair
He took the wheels off so the chair wouldn’t roll when using pedals on his driving games
Sensible.
You want a nuclear war? Cos that’s how you start a nuclear war:
https://t.co/YWjf3dwFjR
Thanks, everyone. Pretty disgusted with the species, right about now.
Present company excepted, of course.
And btw, she’s doing fine today. Just a little sore.
That is messed up, but glad to hear she’s doing ok
Agreed.
Kurt Vonnegut might have been right all along:
https://www.physics-astronomy.com/2022/03/an-astonishing-new-theory-claims.html?fbclid=IwAR23izYo2ZPV9BKCtjTvHvYSVhczrOvydsJYeCyxUT2b7DYYD4CNw1Zsjj4&m=1#l0tdi64snfd5g4ev8cp
Vonnegut is most likely always right. As for the theories in this article, I could never hope to fully wrap my head around all of the implications and any of them will be difficult to demonstrate scientifically so I think of them mostly as philosophy.
Later in the article they talk about a different theory with a mirror universe in which time and entropy flow backwards. That one seems more like science fiction. I did love a David Brin book called The Practice Effect in which the protagonist finds himself in a world where time flows forward, but entropy flows backwards. I highly recommend it.
I wouldn’t even categorize the block universe theory as a “theory” since that should have direct, observable implications. In any case, it is an interesting mind experiment, but that’s about it imo.
I think I’ve heard variations of the mirror universe for years.
F. Scott Fitzgerald too, if we’re all living Benjamin Button lives.
The practical implication of that article seems to suggest that time doesn’t really exist if past, present, and future are all just “now”.
I can’t say I find the proposal terribly convincing.
I don’t think they suggest that they are all now so much as that they are as fixed as x,y,z coordinates. The earth exists in space at a constantly moving set of coordinates. We can’t change that, but we can map it. They are suggesting the same with time (except that we can’t yet observe/map the future) The upside is a lack of paradoxes because traveling back in time would not change anything. The downside is that my dream of finding a way to bring my wizened adult mind back in time to inhabit my teenage head so I can avoid all my past mistakes (and make a whole new set of even dumber mistakes) is shot to hell in this framework. I’ll just have to assume a different framework. If I’m wrong, I’ll simply have to live my life all over again exactly the way it happened (ug).
I like the trailer for Ms. Marvel. I’m tentatively hoping it will be good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9EX0f6V11Y
They’ve changed her powers, but I can understand why: it will be probably be a bit more believable on the screen.
I only know about her character because she was in Ultimate Alliance 3. I guess I understand that it would be hard to emulate her primary power without it looking goofy, but on the other hand that is her primary power. There was a Fantastic Four cartoon that came out in the 80s and they replaced the Human Torch with a robot because they didn’t want to constantly redraw the animated flames. This seems like the same kind of thinking.
Maybe, but I think they are following the “spirit of the law” as opposed to the “letter”. We’ll see how it plays out in the show, but I’m willing to accept the change. I’ve enjoyed the comics of her that I’ve read and at least some of that is transferring well. A nice node to the comics is her sitting on a telephone pole.
https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/ms-marvel-trailer-breakdown-analysis-new-powers/
Oh, I’ll still watch. Marvel seems to have a good track record on character choices, so I’ll give it chance. Unlike Fox with their Galactus as a storm cloud.
Yeah. That made no sense at all. lol
CP: Lords of Kobol (live) — Bear McCreary
Our power went out for a bit. What was that about?
A few years back we upgraded our Amazon Alexa speaker unit to the new video version. The video version is now in the kitchen and the old Alexa speaker is now located in our television/office room. So last night we were watching a documentary on Netflix and there is a scene where a guy asks his Alexa to play a song. Our Alexa complied and we had his song playing on the television and our Alexa playing the same song a few milliseconds behind and we had this weird echo effect. Pretty surreal.
This is similar to why we had to change the “wake ID” on ours to “Computer”.
I often keep the radio playing throughout the day and for a while it was all the rage to have commercials where the characters were asking their Alexa to do things. Ours would try to comply.
I was not amused.
When the only programmer of the software dies:
https://t.co/nf6g05ERFf
OK. This is getting into the land of strange now. I have always really liked Vonnegut and his writing style. Slaughterhouse 5 is a definite contender for my favorite book of all time. I watched the recent documentary on Kurt Vonnegut and it has put me back onto re-reading some of his stuff. So I’m now in re-reading Breakfast of Champions. Today we had the Vonnegut discussion here about being unstuck in time. On a separate level, I like to find old movie that I might have missed. There is a movie called Slapstick of Another Kind that looks absolutely atrocious except that it is chock full of powerhouse people like Jerry Lewis, Madeline Kahn, and Marty Feldman. But I really like old crappy comedy so I decided to watch. The story is “A rich, beautiful couple give birth to deformed alien twins who, when their heads are together, are the smartest kids on the planet.” With the parents and the children both played by Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn. The special effects around the twins in particular look like this should be an MST3K movie.
As I start watching the movie, the credits start and, lo and behold, it lists “in Kurt Vonnegut’s”. So I had to do some research. He is, indeed listed as the first name under “writers” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088134/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0). I’m not familiar with the novel “Slapstick that it’s apparently based on, but I looked it up and it includes “Dr. Swain is a hideous man whose ugliness, along with that of his twin sister Eliza, led their parents to cut them off from modern society. The siblings came to realize that, when in close physical contact, they form a vastly powerful and creative intelligence.”
So, wow, so much Vonnegut. It reminds me of the movie Repo Man where Tracy Walter’s character talks about the “lattice of coincidence” in which someone says “plate” or “shrimp” or “plate of shrimp” and you suddenly start to see “plate of shrimp” everywhere around you (at which point in the movie you start to see a lot of “plate of shrimp” references (side note: watch Repo Man if you haven’t yet. It’s insanely good). I feel like I’m going to see more and more Vonnegut all around me. And I couldn’t be happier about it.
I’ve somehow never heard of this movie(also haven’t read the book). It looks painful – – but I suppose Repo Man would look bad too, and it’s a favorite of mine (and it made a great Palooza).
I asked Siri if he could do my housework for me. He said, “I cannot”
Siri’s useless
Appreciate the non-binary Siri.
I saw Rhett for the first time in literal years last night for the Queensryche/Judas Priest concert.Great fun!
I saw the poster, gawd they look old,
Rob Halford is 70. And he looks it.
But he still has a ton of power in his voice – – and he still drove the motorcycle out onstage for “Hell Bent For Leather.” And got off the motorcycle himself!
I missed this posting. Yeah, we had a great time. Too bad we didn’t have the chance to really catch up, we’ll have to fix that later.
Yup:
https://t.co/FbdQR6aqL5
How the Finns prepare to defend themselves:
https://t.co/kUU7j0Tebo
I think the windshield would need fewer chip repairs if the husband didn’t commute to the city every day
http://wondermark.com/c1520/
Stuntwomen:
https://t.co/DBp7xe0PeH
For those keeping score at home, I canceled ComiXology Unlimited. I’ll miss having access to all of those books, but the new interface is dreadful. It’s such a chore to find books, that I would be more frustrated than anything else. Also, it’s been over a month now, so I’m spite of some empty promises, they’re clearly not serious about undoing the damage.
Sad, it used to be a great way to connect with comics.
Sadly, ComiXology is the only game in town for digital comics that isn’t tied to one publisher (Marvel, DC), so I will still buy new books from them.
Ah, the famous interracial kiss between Kirk and Uhura (not actually the first on TV, there was an earlier one).
Sadly, “Plato’s Stepchildren” is one of the worst of all TOS episodes (though not the actual worst). Good gawd, so many cringey scenes.
-Kirk and Spock performing Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
-Kirk slapping himself.
-Kirk making horsey noises while the little guy rides his back.
-Spock dancing.
Friday before spring break.
Two whole weeks of hubby to myself!
Deadpanites you really should give Severance a try,
Just saying, cough up the 5 bucks and bunge it on AppleTV+, it’s worth it..
-u +i
Also if you have bought a new Apple device you might get a free trial.
Our Apple+ free trial is done in about a week.
That show does have a neat concept. I wonder if I’d just be gritting my teeth in horror and frustration the entire time.
So does anybody else find the DP website getting slowing when you refresh or post a message?
It feels looks I have a dodgy connection but a speed test on my mobile connection indicates it’s fine.
Has it been going on for awhile or just today?
The page loads fine for me.
Off and on for a while.
Works ok for me
Godzilla actor has died:
https://gizmodo.com/godzilla-akira-takarada-dead-at-87-1848672647?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=dlvrit&utm_content=io9
CP: Minus Sixty One — Woodkid
I need to listen to more of his music. I really like his “Guns for Hire.”
https://gizmodo.com/star-wars-rebels-obi-wan-vs-maul-5-years-later-twin-sun-1848662693
One of the best non-movie scenes.
Absolutely. Rebels started off a bit rough, but by the end of it run had given us some of the best Star Wars ever produced. That episode was a high water mark that, sadly, most Star Wars fans likely aren’t even aware of.
Rebels IS Star Wars
I would never have completed the first season if I was watching on my own, but I’m glad I persisted. Rebels best moments are the best of all the animated shows.
Ahsoka dueling Vader was not quite as great as this one – – but up there.
Finally watched Eternals. It was merely ok.
Not even that.
Good do some online board gaming today.
On tap, Beyond the Sun
Hunza in 1953:
https://t.co/dbUPAq0lTA
CW: Fresh
Hmmm:
https://t.co/XT6tPWoqHz
As someone who has coached both male and female athletes in the same sport, over more than a decade, I can say that this author is “cherry picking” an awful lot of data just to support their theory.
For the general athletic community, my experience does not support their thesis.
Denver traffic…
I am not a fan.
That is all.
I’ve heard plenty of Nightwish before, but somehow never listened to Oceanborn.
Wow, now I get it. I’ve always just liked them, nothing more – – but this album is a masterpiece. Even those with Metal allergies might dig it.
I like Ghost River and Nemo. Levi is the one in the family that is a true fan. They are pretty great live.
Play No Mans Sky tonight and reflecting how bloody amazed my younger 80s self would be at this game.
Elite on steroids.
Completed my first expedition, yes!
Let’s start the first day of spring with snow and a biting wind
Talking of Vonnegut, there is a documentary called ‘Kurt Vonnegut Unstuck in Time” which is available on Hulu in the US.
And it is very well done.
Looks like Amazon is taking some feedback into account for ComiXology. The backup your purchases function is back, but you do have to look for it. I haven’t noticed much improvement in the app itself. I’ve been reading my comics in the iOS Kindle app, mostly because it will mark what I’m reading in GoodReads.
Well that is depressing:
https://t.co/MTM4ydiBhb
Jesus.
I wonder if future movies that exist 100% digitally will be safer or even more at risk.
JW: Quiz Show
Watching this decades later, the realisation hits that Rob Morrow did a Robert Redford impression through the whole fucking film.
Sigh.
Oh guested in the latest episode of Shining Vale and he did not talk like Robert Redford.
I rest my case.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/daniel-radcliffe-weird-al-biopic-elements-song-1235115049/
How Daniel Radcliffe laded the role of Weird Al in the biopic
Hubby’s home this week for spring break. It’s very had to work when he’s playing games on his computer. I want to play too.
So I bought these minimal shoes that are cheap version of those shoes that are supposed to support your feet in a more natural way.
Which basically means slightly wider and thin soles. They are comfortable though, certainly might make a good spring/summer shoes if they last.
Crap joke for the day:
A guy was boarding a plane when he heard that the Pope was on the same flight. “This is exciting!” thought the gentleman. “I’ve always been a big fan of the Pope. Perhaps I’ll be able to see him in person.” Suddenly, the man realized his seat was right next to the Pope himself!
Still, the gentleman was too shy to speak to His Holiness.
Shortly after take-off, the Pope took a crossword puzzle out of his carry on bag and began penciling in the answers.
“This is fantastic!” the gentleman mused. “I’m really good at crosswords!”
It crossed his mind that if the Pope got stuck, he’d ask him for assistance.
Almost as if providence struck, the Pope turned to the man and said, “Excuse me, but do you know a four letter word referring to a woman that ends in ‘unt’?”
The three Cardinals behind, in front of and beside him shrunk down in their seats, as far as possible, all looking for something on the floor.
The gentleman was in morbid shock.
He couldn’t breathe.
He went within himself, thought deeper, longer for a plausible answer and after almost a minute, the dark clouds of evil parted in his mind and the sun shone in.
Turning to the Pope, the gentleman said with reverence and politeness, “I believe, Your Holiness, that you’re looking for the word, ‘aunt.'”
“Of course!” the Pope mused, not taking his gaze off the crossword. “You wouldn’t happen to have an eraser, would you?”
Ha!
CP: Emil – Ultimate Weapon No. 7 — Square Enix Music
I think hubby and I are going to switch cars. They’re the same year but, because he commutes to the city for work, he has almost four times the klicks on his than I do. We’re hoping, having him put the extra kilometres on mine will extend the life of both cars.
So crazy it just might work!
https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arts/coen-heads-how-phoenix-played-a-starring-role-in-raising-arizona-13229220
I’ve been to a few of these locations.
Have there been any changes to the backend of the Deadpan site in the last few days? I use Feedly to get updates and it’s been acting odd for only this site. Instead of displaying all of the updates, it says I have x number of updates and only shows me one at a time.
I’ll ask Tony. I have not made any changes recently.
CP: Down, Down, Down — HushPuppies
WTF:
https://t.co/iFbfBGaZ5B
Wasn’t this a South Park episode?
I hate people
A “gaynine?” Maybe if he had Rover baptized it wouldn’t have come to this.
LeeLoo had her first Martial Arts class today. She did well and had fun! We’ll see if it sticks.
Went to bed at 9 last night (me!!)
Was still up until 3am coughing, sneezing and feeling blecch. Good times.
The test was negative and I never lost my sense of taste or smell, so I don’t think it’s that. Just crud.
/end complaining
Nic Cage explains it all:
https://t.co/l7SznHLn7f
Wow, the pricetags on his outfit are offputting.
So this funk actually is Covid.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Get well soon Jack.
Ah man, feel better. You’re triple vaxed so, it shouldn’t be too bad.
Get better man!
In total selfishness… if you can, keep us posted as to how things manifest. Sort of “our reporter on the ground”.
Though I too am triple vaxed and still mask (about 50% of the time)… I figure it’s “when” and not “if” before it gets me and I’d like to know what to expect/watch for.
So. . . . the full story:
I assume I caught it at the Judas Priest concert last week (Tuesday). I started to feel congested and achy on Saturday. I took a home COVID test on Sunday (or was it Monday?) and it was negative. I even took LeeLoo to her first karate class on Monday – – we were all masked up the whole time.
The symptoms steadily worsened as the week progressed. Achy, headachy, congested, tired, blecch. So I took a different brand of home COVID test last night, and it came up positive.
Today I’ve done nothing but sleep, which I think has helped, but I’m not out of the woods at all yet. Yes, because of my vax status, I’m not worried for myself.
I am concerned because LeeLoo has tested positive. She had a 101 temp last night.
This post inspired by a podcast that I’m listen too that covers this short term trend:
https://groovyhistory.com/paper-dresses-a-brief-1966-fashion-fad
Quite the Chinook arch this morning
CD- rebuilding the calander on my laptop.
About 80% of my entries starting from about May 2021 have vanished.
Big news from MST3K land. You really want to do that free registration for the Gizmoplex (https://www.gizmoplex.com/browse). I just got a backer update with this information:
“Starting on MAY 6, all registered Gizmoplex users will be able to stream EVERY AVAILABLE CLASSIC EPISODE – that’s over 125 episodes from Seasons 1-10 – for free, and without ads!
Yeah, you heard us: even if you don’t have a Gizmoplex Member Pass, you’ll be able to stream the entire MST3K classic collection for free, and – for a limited time – without advertising!”
And if you are interested in season 13:
“Grab a Season Pass ($135) before the SEASON PREMIERE on May 6, and you’ll also get a DIGITAL DOWNLOAD of Season 13 – worth $85 – for free!”
Honestly, $135 for a season pass is a bit steep. But they are doing more than just new episodes. They are also doing live stream events each month and a bunch of other bonuses. Although probably still steep at $135.
Nice!
But I really hope they never for http://www.club-mst3k.com/ to go offline.
So it appears dedicated chess computers refuse to die:
https://squareoffnow.com/
Actually quite fancy the rollable chess board, but realistically I’m so crap at chess it would soon become a rather expensive ornament.
The creator of the GIF is no more:
https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/23/22992066/stephen-wilhite-gif-creator-dies?utm_campaign=theverge&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
I don’t care what he says, I’m still producing it as G-IF.
He also wasn’t a linguist.
Nobody is perfect, like my spelling.
… or was he a cunning linguist?
It appears he died from complications from Covid:
https://t.co/PMthOIUhmV
It’s not jood practice to gust jo and decide your own pronunciation of things. It would jet jreatly confusing.
(Also, RIP to him. Fuck COVID.)
It’s pronounced SOVID.
We have a skiff of snow on the ground. What’s that about?
Well actually, I had to look it up.
Noun – a flurry or light covering of snow:
North American, Scottish
https://starwars.hasbro.com/en-us/product/star-wars-the-vintage-collection-jabba-s-tatooine-skiff-collectible-vehicle:D7962550-8C4C-46ED-8E81-909218D07F28
Thank you, Rhett ma bookie.
*sigh*
Leave it to Arizonans to turn talk of snow to talk of the desert.
I thought it was a name for a small boat as well.
What a skiff of snow might look like.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8e/8a/86/8e8a8642155c1839e62e04ea5e6ffdc1.jpg
No, that’s a boatload of snow
LOL
CP: Black Flies — Ben Howard
https://todayinhistory.blog/2022/03/24/march-24-1944-the-great-escape/
On this date in 1944!
My Pavlovian response was to hum the theme tune to the movie.
CW: Halo tv series E1
https://ew.com/books/aliens-vasquez-new-book-to-reveal-alien-backstory/
I don’t know if I want further backstory. She’s basically a perfect character as is.
Also – – Aliens is better assuming she’s never met a xenomorph before.
Damn shame, it was very creepy:
https://t.co/QleMhClROj
Darn, I really liked that one.
Off to the city. Meh
She’s off to see the wizard
the adequate wizard of Meh
we hear he is an adequate Wiz if ever A wiz there was
If ever an adequate Wiz there was
the wizard of Meh is one because
because because because because becaaaaause
because of the average things he does
….she’s off to see the wizard
the adequate wizard of Mehhhhhh
You missed your calling, JustaJoe.
This is inspired!
For my part, I’m going to aspire to put the “me” into mediocrity.
Little one is crabby today. Presumably because she’s sick.
Me, I’m still coughing and blecch. Sleep just isn’t happening (worse than usual).
Seriously fuck COVID.
That blows. Sorry about the little one. There is some data that if you have been vaxed and still manage to get Covid, your immunity will be stronger. How long that immunity lasts is still up in the air.
Hope you and the little one get better soon *hugs*
The science is on our side. Little ones tend to recover just fine. Vaxxed people tend to recover fine. But I don’t want to tempt the universe any further with any optimism. Last time I did that, I caught covid.
For posterity: we were both trending in the right direction yesterday, we’ve both had worse days today. I am less achy, but more congested. Her temp is fine, but she’s very moody, which is not like her at all.
One more complaint – – I had a coworker telling me on a call to take ivermectin, to “not believe the media.” It worked for him! Being a polite person, I just nodded and smiled. I did mention that I’d heard good things from people I trust sources about remdesivir, but this expert then told me to avoid it because it was full of side effects.
Seriously, how did these people come to dominate our conversations? It’s like the smelly guy on the subway has taken over all discourse.
The same guy took over a company call during Texas’s big energy crisis to rant about “the windmills.” When a higher up said, “That was disproven immediately,” he retreated into more dogma, so everyone else, recognizing treacherous political talk ahead, dropped the topic.
JW: Severance E7
That ending..
Now that isn’t good:
https://t.co/baRT6wuTeh
Hope you and your family get better soon, Jack. And ignore the crazies. Not that you need me to tell you that. 😀
We watched the first ep of Halo. It’s quite a departure from the games and books, imo. But, it was enjoyable in its own right. I’ll just think of it as an alternate universe version. 😀
Agreed but there had better be an actual Halo and the flood at some point.
Taylor Hawkins has died:
https://t.co/pfx0IU72se
I assume we’ll know the cause of death soon. Only 50. RIP.
He was younger than me. So sad. And we just watched Studio 666 a few nights ago.
I never knew any of this about Harry Knowles or AICN, as I was never a reader or a part of that community. But. . . . just wow.
https://slate.com/culture/2022/03/harry-knowles-aint-it-cool-news-blade-ii-review.html
Look nice, but I ain’t giving up my Casio for one of these:
https://www.pocket-lint.com/gadgets/news/160524-omega-x-swatch-speedmaster-moonswatch
Interesting look at what may have been going on in other countries to make it APPEAR that ivermectin was effective against Covid. (Narrator- “It was not”.)
Fwd to me from my eldest, who is currently studying for her Masters in the bio-engineering world.
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdarpE6R/
Crap joke for the evening:
What kind of door likes to lick your face?
A Labrador.
We finally watched Eternals.
It’s really not bad at all. It’s not amazing – – but I feel like a few days with a skilled film editor, and you could have had something really excellent.
Lots of parallels between this and Justice League – – even a few DC jokes – – but it’s far, far better than any of the DCU movies.
The most far-fetched thing in this movie would have been Angelie Jolie’s enormous lips.
Yeah. Pacing was the biggest issue, imo.
We were ok with Eternals. However, given all the reviews, I think we went in with low expectations so were pleasantly surprised.
This Pitch Meeting on Eternals is also fun (contains spoilers)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIdzUpAswe0&ab_channel=ScreenRant
I keep confusing “The Eternals” (which I haven’t seen) with “The Old Guard” (which I have, and enjoyed).
Still fighting with my MacBook and Firefox.
Every site I try to go to gives me a warning that says it’s certificate is bad and it won’t open the site.
Tried-
– Making sure computer’s date/time is accurate. It is.
– Erasing every bit of cache, history, cookies… everything has been deleted.
Still nothing.
I know the sites are OK because my old computer will access them.
Frustraighting
Covupdate:
We have 3/4 of the household tested positive now.
The littlest one seems to be recovering. Fingers crossed.
I’m recovering, but still coughing more than I’d like. The worst part is the Covidsomnia. And of course, lack of sleep (worse than my usual) isn’t helping anything.
I’m not gonna shut down talk of the Smith/Rock thing. I’m sure there are important things to be said about it.
But jesus, I was already tired of it last night.
I half expect it was planned just to generate buzz.
Looking at prices of G=Shock watches that have a similar spec to mine, prices have tripled over 15 years..ouch!
Mine is still working, mocking me everyday by continuing to work.
The not so humble Jerry Can:
https://youtu.be/XwUkbGHFAhs
CP: You Never Give Me Your Money/The End — Tenacious D
I haven’t read in almost two weeks. I know there is a very good reason for such, but it still bothers me
So we watched the animated Aladdin tonight, and wow, it has not aged well. Even the Robin Williams parts were often seriously dated. (Hey kids, look, it’s Jack Nicholson jokes! And a Rodney Dangerfield impression!)
Hey, at least there’s no Aladdin connection to Wil Smith, right?
Wait, what?
First film I rewatched when I subscribed to Disney+ and a very hard disagree from me, still love it and prefer it to the non animated version.
Hard pass on the CGI Aladdin. Unrelated to recent events.
I don’t know if the COVIDsomnis is the worst part, but it’s pretty fucking awful.
*hugs*
It snowed last night. I’m sure spring will show up at some point.
If I can distract you from that Star Trek episode you’ve watched 100 times, The Last Days of Ptolemy Greyon Apple TV+ is also rather good.
I need to check, but I think our Apple TV+ has run out.
Speaking of Apple TV+, we did at least make it through the 2 seasons of Ted Lasso.
Truly a special show. Took us completely by surprise. It surpasses the hype. We’ll have to find ways to watch future seasons.
https://www.revolvermag.com/music/14-things-you-didnt-know-about-crow-soundtrack
This soundtrack and movie were both a big deal to me. I still listen to this often. I don’t agree with the article that the movie “doesn’t hold up…” – – but then, it’s been a few years since I last watched.
Also – – Kennedy! What a shame that she went from “that quirky music geek VJ” to “that rage-filled blathering talking head.”
I HATED Kennedy.
Like, a lot.
Like, so much that I WROTE her a letter (email did not exist at the time) asking if perhaps she wouldn’t find something else to do with her life. I believe I may have been a bit more acerbic with my wording than that.
That is the only “personality” I have ever written to in my life.
This is how strongly I disliked her.
Well, it would seem you were prescient about her.
The only VJs I ever really liked were Martha Quinn and J.J. Jackson.
Hubby is home this week. He’s decided we need to go… somewhere. I guess tomorrow we’re going for a drive.
Well the first episode of Moon Knight has dropped on Disney+
I will be watching it with my tea this evening.
Pinky out or in?
I got into Moon Knight during my brief time back in NJ, but never too deeply. I tried a few reboot attempts – – the best dealt with his multiple personalities, the worst made him into a white-caped Batman.
I’m glad the show seems to be leaning into the madness angle.
Oh I hate it with the power of a thousand suns.
That’s Oscar’s English accent.
https://gizmodo.com/marvel-moon-knight-oscar-isaac-british-accent-review-1848727623
I’m kind of looking forward to Marvel’s take on insane Batman. Of course, is insane Batman different than regular Batman?
Sad news:
https://t.co/tBpJSTWFGo
Wondering if it’s a prelude to dementia.
Regardless of his recent track record – – on and off camera – – this guy was such a huge part of our formative movie and TV days. Truly sad news.
But other than that, an intriguing start to a series,
I didn’t think I was going to enjoy ‘Our Flag is Death’, but 5 episodes in and I’m really enjoying it.
On HBO Max in the states or you could go down the ironic route to watch.
Cough
“go down the ironic route” *cough*
Never heard Google Maps’ voice direction cough before.
So we’re going to Drumheller tomorrow. Will probably hit the Tyrrell. I took Van there when he was up my way.
We quite liked the first episode of Moon Knight. However, personally speaking, I don’t think it’s a show my eldest should watch
As a casual fan of the character, I liked it too. Intriguing premise, intriguing bad guy. The main character whose perspective we get is a bit of a cliche, but it works.
Do you think there would be triggers for for your eldest?
Yeah, big time triggers. I’ve never made it a secret she has schizophrenia. She doesn’t have a split personality, but the voices and hallucinations were big time early on before she was diagnosed. She keeps them in check now but still…
I liked it more than T Cat. She found it a bit too disturbing, though she’s willing to watch the rest of it.
I was afraid Teresa wouldn’t like it because of the time gaps, but she really liked it. I’m quite happy with the first episode.
https://mashable.com/article/female-sci-fi-authors-you-need-to-read
Another reading list. Some obvious, some not.
Well I had heard and read some of the works of Kameron Hurley and Malka Okder.
I’ve read most of those authors. Some good stuff there. Some strange omissions though.
I completely agree with ditto
Rifftrax game. Not sure how I feel about that. Then again, I’m not that much into gaming. I have a Switch but haven’t turned it on in close to a year.
https://geektyrant.com/news/prove-your-movie-riffing-skills-in-rifftrax-the-game-coming-may-5
Fun idea. It looks more like a social/party game than a “sit down in your chair and play alone” kind of thing. From their perspective, it’s a good idea.
Will I play it if invited? Sure! Will I buy it? Doubtful.
It snowed, and it’s cold. I think we’ll head out tomorrow instead
AV club moves to LA after giving ultimatum to staff:
https://t.co/4AJB2xDgiG
The site has greatly declined over the past few years. This does seem like more bad news, however.
I’m not the biggest fan of AV Club, but I agree that the handling of this is rather shitty.
https://www.stonekettle.com/2022/03/no-one-is-coming-to-save-us.html
Your chilling read for the day.
CP: Theories — Edwin
Well finished watching ‘Our Flag Means Death’, that ending..right in the feels.
I’ve done the first couple of episodes so far. Quite intrigued. Though, now that I know where I recognize the lead from, I can’t help but to keep saying “Welcome to Jumanji” now…
The hat does appear in a later episode.
On the read to see the dinosaurs
*sigh*
Read = road
Yesterday I replaced the 3, burned out bulbs in my kitchen ceiling fixtures with three LED bulbs.
Today they wouldn’t turn on. Took one out and put it in a different fixture and it worked. Put it back up and nothing.
Resolved to take them back. Went to kitchen pantry for breakfast, turned on the pantry light and all three kitchen bulbs came on.
I begin to suspect I am living in a 3 stooges episode.
Can turn pantry light off and the other bulbs stay on. Played with it a bit. Sometimes 1 or 2 lights come on when their switch is flipped but to get all 3 I must flip switch in pantry.
Internet turned up no hits on this so I call GE help line. Got routed to a technical person. She was amused at the situation and congratulated me for being the first to report this situation.
Guess I need to scour the town for any remaining, incandescent, “Reveal” bulbs.
BTW – after spending 2 days trying to trouble shoot my laptop, it still tells me every website’s certificate is invalid and just will not work on many of them even if I tell it to ignore the security message.
I think I shall go out and pull weeds from the garden. I don’t think those are digital yet.
I’d say there is a problem with your ceiling fixtures, not your bulbs.
Yeah, it is either your light fixture or your circuit that connects your fixtures. I’m not an electrician, but my intuition is telling me there is some electrical resistance in your fixture or circuit. The extra power draw of flipping on your other switch is enough to overcome the resistance and turn on the bulbs. Imagine me telling you this in the voice of Cliff Clavin.
Sounds like a good day to churn butter by candlelight.
CP: I Got You — Split Enz
What it is like to own an out of warranty German automobile:
https://www.hagerty.com/media/advice/a-few-things-to-know-before-you-steal-my-914/
Well I’m tempted to try Paramount+:
https://www.engadget.com/star-trek-motion-picture-4k-2022-directors-edition-150018799.html
A joke worthy of Van:
A little dog goes into a saloon in the Wild West, and beckons to
the bartender. “Hey, bartender, gimme a whiskey.”
The bartender ignores him.
“Hey bartender, gimme a whiskey!”
Still ignored.
“HEY BARMAN!! GIMME A WHISKEY!!”
The bartender takes out his six-shooter and shoots the dog in the
leg, and the dog runs out the saloon, howling in pain.
Three years later, the wee dog appears again, wearing boots,
jeans, chaps, a Stetson, gun belt, and guns. He ambles slowly into the
saloon, goes up to the bar, leans over it, and says to the bartender,
“I’m here t’git the man that shot muh paw.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-60961184
Slime robots. Cool, gross, cute, and terrifying.
Translated sci-fi and fantasy:
https://t.co/cIvuEglNpX
While there are a number of contenders this year, I have to nominate this one for “damn fine go of an April Fool’s prank”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7HOOLd_Sto
FYI, if you have any interest in military history, this guy’s channel puts out a lot of impressive content.
That was really well done.
“Some controllers would later report hearing distortion, noises, and melancholy music over their headsets, but this is unconfirmed.”
lmao
Oh. Bravo.
Bill Fries has died:
https://t.co/4LnjraZnPw
Huh, I have just been hearing “Convoy” in recent days. Asking google to play “Eastbound and Down” auto generates a follow on play list that includes this one.
CW: Moonfall
It’s all rather silly but it does mention the Roche limit so props for that.
You are god damn right!
https://t.co/Gb9vzIOuKO
Even that one had some differences, yaknow.
I’ll grudgingly agree with the article, but that still doesn’t diminish my love for BR and MR.
ASD is goddamned great stuff, though. No debate.
True but a different league of faithfulness compared to BR.
So that makes all 4 of us now. The teenager is also triple-vaxxed, so I’m not unreasonably worried. But still. Ugh.
Well that sucks Jack, I hope you all get over Covid asap.
Absolutely incredible to watch. Incredible for one person to pull all of this off at the same time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46qjDJ0lLdE
And it’s a pretty groovy tune too.
Half a million views in a few days. At this rate he might just make enough money to pay off what it took to make that guitar.
And totally agreed about the talent it takes to pull this off.
So this is what he’s been up to. lol
It’s been ages since I’ve heard of him.
Vai was at the last MHoF event in Jan 2020, getting inducted and inducting Satriani. He and his wife were clearly not open to stop and chat, so I didn’t approach him.
Unlike the gaggle of fanboys who chased him everywhere.
Spring will arrive at some point
Well goodbye to Alain Delon, just not now but soon:
https://bit.ly/3x52uEr
Well Oscar’s English accent was not quite as grating on a rewatch of Moon Knights first episode.
I didn’t notice anything off about it. But I’m not a native British English speaker. I will say that after years of watching British comedies, I can (with utter confidence) say that the accent was better than Dick Van Dyke in Marry Poppins.
And (minor detail spoiler) some one even says to him at one point, “What’s with that accent?” I think, even if it is dodgy, they gave a workable excuse.
Happy birthday to both Amy Bowen and Dani! May you have the bestest birthday ever
Cheers to you both!!
“Early morning, April 4”
Happy birthday, Amelia Bowen!
Happy birthday, Dani, aka Mrs. LoPan!
Happy birthday to the both of you!
Whoa:
http://returntomonkeyisland.com/
“Bulls on Parade” may be even more relevant today than when it first came out over 25 years ago.
That applies to a lot of RATM.
The groove on that song is just the nast.
Vera Farmiga singing Iron Maiden. Yep.
https://loudwire.com/the-conjuring-vera-farmiga-covers-iron-maiden-trooper-anthrax-scott-ian/
Morning Pan
With luck, (fingers crossed) I’ll do a movie on Friday. It’s been awhile, I know.
I’m getting off some meds today so I’m hoping life will be back to normal
hugs
What he said.
Make it three.
GROUP HUG!!!!
CP: Don’t Get Yourself In Trouble (live) — Bachman-Turner Overdrive
https://www.revolvermag.com/music/hear-primus-first-new-song-5-years-conspiranoia
An 11-minute Primus song! I haven’t listened yet.
Looks like a good interview! You podcast types probably remember Jadzia Axelrod.
https://www.comicsbookcase.com/updates/galaxy-the-prettiest-star-dc-comics
Belated birthday best wishes all around.
“Octopuses fight over territory and, perhaps, females by throwing debris at one another and boxing.” How uncivilized!
https://theconversation.com/the-hidden-world-of-octopus-cities-and-culture-shows-why-its-wrong-to-farm-them-180536
That is one futuristic looking aircraft for something designed in the 1950s:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_XB-70_Valkyrie
Yep. Pretty familiar with that one. There are a bunch of other cool experimental aircraft from that era.
Is anyone still making concorde-shaped planes?
These guys are. https://www.justflight.com/product/dc-designs-concorde-microsoft-flight-simulator
Oh, and these guys. https://boomsupersonic.com/
Short horror film:
https://youtu.be/yt5W_nSKD1c
Between the cat and the husband both having dreams last night, it’s a wonder I got any sleep at all.
https://people.com/tv/amc-interview-with-the-vampire-characters-first-look/
Only 7 episodes! Man, I’m looking forward to this. . . . even if I’m not 100% sure how I’ll watch it.
https://www.stereogum.com/2181957/wednesday-sxsw-diiv-squirrel-flower-airbnb-doordash/columns/sounding-board/
I get that there are different sides of this issue. . . But man, that’s a hard life. And it’s the cold-hearted, tone deaf responses from some that get me.
And really, it comes down to the same argument: streamers should just provide adequate compensation to the musicians who are providing the product for their customers.
Good article.
Episode 2 of Moon Knight just rocked.
The numbers are rather staggering:
https://t.co/TrVKQCWa4O
CP: Jailbreak – Dropkick Murphys
Michelle Yeoh reflects on some of her major roles:
https://youtu.be/DHOSiFzcHJ8
The Cuban Missile crisis from another angle:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/04/that-time-when-soviet-rocket-scientists-nearly-nuked-new-york-city/
Hubby is expected to be home a little early today. This makes me happy
There, draft newsletter done. Now, back to your regularly scheduled spreadsheets.
Moon Knight ep 2 was fun. Definitely getting interesting.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/apr/07/pink-floyd-reform-to-support-ukraine
They should clarify that it’s Pink Floyd without Roger Waters.
That’s just Waters under the bridge by now.
Do you think he’s trolling them?
From the article –
A week before Russia invaded Ukraine, Waters told an interviewer on Russia Today that talk of a Russian invasion was “bullshit … anybody with an IQ above room temperature knows [an invasion] is nonsense”; he has subsequently condemned the invasion calling it “the act of a gangster”, while also condemning “propaganda to demonise Russia”
If we start to go down that route, how many clarifiers would it take to describe “Yes” for any given album?
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/city-on-the-edge-of-forever/
Speaking of TOS
With season 2 of Picard airing, there seems to be a lot of Trek news lately. In my Facebook feed, an old friend of mine, posted about how he and his brother were on set to observe the taping of TNG S1E25 “Conspiracy”.
He posted, “At some point when Patrick is picking up the phaser and the take is cut, he stands up and tosses the phaser II in the air end over end and catches it again by the handle.
Mind BLOWN.
Picard and Riker holding those phasers in that shot will live with me forever.”
Did a rewatch of the first ST film tonight:
https://youtu.be/zrXvBaFFu80
The overture is included and just like that I’m bloody old..
So you did watch that new-fangled version?
Yup, nice and sparkly.
I was on Reddit today and on the /r/startrek group, someone was watching Star Trek : The Motion Picture for the first time thanks to the Paramount+ 4K Remaster.
The fellow was astounded that the movie featured the theme from Star Trek: The Next Generation
I’ve never felt so old…
I remember how the decades felt distinctly different. 1984 was so much different than 1994. 2008 and 2022 seem about the same. Everything after the ’90s is just one long decade. That gives me a warped perspective on the passage of time.
Goodbye to another part of my childhood, the author of Mr Benn has died:
https://t.co/3rN1ogONtl
They have a plan
https://www.reddit.com/r/BSG/comments/ty9mt0/the_next_iss_crews_mission_poster_looks_kinda/
When we visited the wonderful Space Center in the south with the wonderful JustaJoe, they had a bunch of these kinds of posters, referencing Stargate, different versions of Trek, Aliens.
Who’s surprised that career space scientists are also nerds?
Here it is!
https://pitchfork.com/news/pink-floyd-new-song-hey-hey-rise-up-support-ukraine/
Weird to hear Pink Floyd with these kinds of vocals. Still powerful stuff.
Was going to do a movie today but woke up to a ton of work. Seriously, who drops a bunch of work on a Thursday evening?
Around my place, it’s SOP that disasters show up right before the weekend.
This table of contents and I are not getting along
JW: The Duke
An actual visit to the cinema to see this very British film. The geordie accents by the main cast were pretty good.
Doubt you’ll see it on your side of the pond. ?but I enjoyed it.
https://designyoutrust.com/2022/04/looney-tunes-without-looney-tunes-existential-surreal-and-creepy-backgrounds/
These are great.
CP: More — Holly McNarland
CW: Severance season finale
Not going to change the record, this series is bloody great.
Your hot take of the day: Maverick was the Villain
https://youtu.be/xGw3Wi0_UY4
He definitely has a point
CW: All the Old Knives
Old style spy drama on Amazon Prime.
Loads of Brit actors doing terrible US accents…argh!
Actually not too bad, if you like your spy movies to be as far away as possible from James Bind you might enjoy this.
-i +o
If you think I might enjoy thos, I might give it a try 😉
Today we were talking about porpoises and I made a Hudson Hawk reference. Hubby had no idea what I was talking about. I think I will introduce him to the (fun) hot mess that is Hudson Hawk. I wonder if it will hod up. I have my doubts.
You know, it held up. Still silly fun
That one would be a good Palooza candidate…someday.
I know what it is. I haven’t had the experience. I would watch it for you guys.
I saw it at the cinema.
Was my ‘I’ll watch any film good or bad’ phase.
Don’t think I’ve seen it.
JW: Amelie
Goodness I just love this film and the accordion music is just FAB.
It’s been years since I viewed it but I recall loving it.
Seems like it had my level of movie quirkiness.
Fascinating:
https://www.slashfilm.com/826796/dark-citys-matrix-connection-goes-deeper-than-its-plot/
I’m way too tired to read it in full, but I intend to get back.
Took in the new 4K Remaster of Star Trek: The Motion Picture on Paramount+ . While still not a perfect film, it’s certainly much better than folks give it credit for. It’s based on the 2001 Director’s Edition, which I don’t think I had actually seen before.
I do recommend it if you’ve got access. I also stayed through the credits to take in this bit of a 40 year overdue fix:
https://www.facebook.com/michael.okuda/posts/10158334328617204
Star Trek is not Star Wars, so the first film was very much in the spirit of the original series.
I’m definitely more Wars than Trek, but I’ve seen a goodly amount of Trek over the years. I remember people giving the first Trek movie a lot of crap for being slow, but I really, really liked it. It was visually stunning and I loved the concepts it got into.
I’ve never agreed with the common opinion that the first Star Trek is a bad movie – – but – – it is goddamn slow. That scene of viewing the Enterprise is majestic. . . then tedious. . . then oh my god, move on!!
I recall reading as a kid that the Trek community felt that it was a fine Sci-Fi movie, but not really true to Star Trek. That’s why we got Wrath of Khan, which was more true to its roots.
Well:
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/responses-to-the-question-why-didnt-you-ever-have-kids
I know Imagine has become a cliche, but the root song is still a gorgeous piece of music.
Here’s Julian Lennon performing it beautifully, with Nuno Bettencourt on guitar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NicWjYMPDG0
I’m glad he got off his pebble.
What happens when you ban Kinder eggs:
https://t.co/GiNUEY7MEm
You know this is dated 2014, right?
I’ve never been busted for bringing them to mmmeetups.
It bemuses me that they are still banned when loads of children die each year in the US from firearm accidents.
There was a dark joke a few years back about including small toys inside of AR-15s instead of chocolate eggs so kids would have easier access to them.
A lot about the US bemuses me
That Dark City article (I posted April 10) is pretty interesting. The parallels between Dark City and the Matrix are obvious, but I didn’t know DC was actually a direct influence on the Matrix.
Well the ‘From’ season finale was rather short of anything indicating what the fuck was going on.
Hopefully it will get a S2.
Woah, royalties are done.
That means, tomorrow, I can actually do a PBP!
For Mother’s Day, my Boo is using their 3D printer to make me a Majima statue. She keeps sending me pics of the work in process. The last one was of a bunch of limbs beside a Coke bottle. It was a little disturbing
https://nerdist.com/article/channel-surf-retro-tv-website-nostalgia/
I’ve been meaning to check this out.
Yah:
https://deadline.com/2022/04/severance-renewed-season-2-apple-tv-1234995434/
Your reminder that Jewel always sucked.
https://www.stereogum.com/2182890/kurt-loder-apology-jewel-interview/news/
(Loder is a bit deuche-y in the clip, no denying it)
Counterpoint:
https://www.stereogum.com/2182018/jewel-music-industry-sexism/interviews/weve-got-a-file-on-you/
If you ever visit Malta:
https://travelmagazine.com/popeye-the-bizarre-movie-set-turned-theme-park-in-malta/?fbclid=IwAR10he_Po6ZKi8Ea8tw6NNMWKp93P3JmuQ73ZxzmD3SHSSq8AeCE1xDQX6k#:~:text=The%20film%20set%20has%20become%20a%20big%20tourist,coastal%20setting%20Popeye%20lived%20in%20for%20the%20movie
So, the eldest daughter wanted to see The Batman a second time, so I took her.
OK – – it’s good. Way too long, but my interest held for most of it. Honestly, it waned* a little bit in the final chapter.
All of the actors were damn good in their roles, yes, including Robert Pattinson.
It snowed last night
Burnout.
Earbuds/headphones give me headaches. I use speakers but they do fill the whole room. I wonder if this might be a solution for people like me
https://www.pcgamer.com/wearing-speakers-around-your-neck-may-be-the-new-pc-gaming-sound-solution/
We used Bose Frames for a work project and I was extremely impressed with the quality. They have speakers that point into your ears from the frames of the sunglasses so it works like headphones but without anything actually sitting in your ears.
https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/frames.html
You are just minutes away from a Play by Play. You lucky, lucky people
The worst romance?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij3g_HGwb5M&ab_channel=DominicNoble
Oy. . . TL;DW – – I only skipped ahead to see the book he chose. But oy.
Ok, let’s see what Netflix has on tap. Whatever it is, it will just be a normal pbp. My brain is still getting off spreadsheet mode so isn’t feeling overly creative right now.
Ok, today’s movie is Privlige
The write up: Dark rituals. Family secrets. And a demonic evil lurking in the shadows. In this town, privlige comes at a terrible price.
Oh. Language, violence, and nudity warning. The perfect trifecta of a terrible B movie
Babysitting is yuck to big sister
It’s not Anna
Cool bookshelves
Don’t open your mouth
Oh Anna, you’re going crazy
Anna didn’t last long
Time passes
His performance dropped by 15%
Zombie ants
Mom found his scary pics
Rave in the swimming pool
Sex at the rave
He’s thinking about dead Anna
Going to see grandpa
He’s stronger than Anna
This has slight Get Out. vibes
Sophie is changing
I never had to climb a rope in gym class
Yeah, that wasn’t a thing in PE classes at school.
Oh please, we all know the doctor is in on it
He’s acting creepy
Meeting Sophie’s ex
… or what’s left of him
Sure. Drugs caused this
CW: Tokyo Vice E3
Is it good?
Yeah, definitely worth a watch.
Wait outside while I talk to Lars
Yeah, calm down
What’s in the pills?
This is not a worm
Necro fungus
I know someone
High school antics
I swallowed it
Has it hurt her yet?
We need an exorcism
Is evil real?
We all have our own demons
Smoke from the tummy
He forgot about his study date
We have our methods
Remembering dead Anna
Time for some EVP
Under any circumstances
This seems more like a séance than an exorcism
I don’t think it liked that noise
You’re all going to die
How cliche
I’m afraid to be alone
It might be the last night of their lives
Wait? A threesome. Yup, it must be the last night of his life
The ritual lady is gone
Yup, the medication seems safe to me
He’s acting like Anna did before she bit it
Checking out the drug maker
Everybody’s adopted
Found the medium… what’s left of her anyway
That can’t be good
We have always been here
A secret room
You will bond quickly
Step back everyone
The transition is beginning
Escape!
Fire!
The shock ending
I wanted to like this movie. It had a lot of potential. It just… I don’t know. Didn’t quite click
The voice of Iago has died:
https://variety.com/2022/film/news/gilbert-gottfried-dead-dies-comedian-aladdin-1235231387/?fbclid=IwAR3YAUeezMZQK2qTPRYkt6lVRRD9sTF6X0PkUW7tALpjsL_xTAVS48sjnKo
That’s a shock.
Iago is definitely not the first thing I think of for him. Really, I just think of him being himself.
Listening to him on the WTF from 2012 and how could you not jump to Iago, he did not put on a funny accent for that role.
Just heard a version of “Billie Jean“ done by Chris Cornell. Oh my gosh it’s brilliant.
You can’t dance to it …but so much soul!
I am usually not a fan of covers but he makes it a whole new thing of its own.
https://youtu.be/R0uWF-37DAM
I really liked this
Here’s another version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I71ukgaAwWA&ab_channel=MoPillekamp
It’s snowing
I’m so glad spring is here
I had tickets to see KMFDM and Ministry in 2020, but time, cancellations, and reschedulings saw that lineup morph a bunch of times. It somehow ended up last night as Corrosion of Conformity, Melvins, and Ministry, which is a weird collection of bands.
CoC were great. Never been much into the Melvins, but Buzz Osbourne’s “Sideshow Bob” hair was fascinating to watch.
And Ministry was pretty unforgettable. It’s a miracle Al Jourgensen is still alive, but he seemed really energetic and lively at last night’s show. Turns out he’s a great performer. Man, that moshpit got going a bunch of times.
Sounds cool!
Last weekend Tbird and I went to Tucson and saw the Megadeth, Lamb of God, Trivium, and In Flames show. The acoustics were some of the best I’ve heard. In Flames sounded incredible with new guitarist Chris Broderick. They played an older song “Behind Space” which I never thought I would hear live. Megadeth was pretty good, Dave still has most of his vocals and still comes off as sort of a dick. Trivium played well, but I think they are mostly an okay band. The big surprise was Lamb of God. I don’t usually listen to much straight-up death metal, but Lamb of God had an amazing energetic performance complete with pyrotechnics. It was so fun, Teresa was grinning ear to ear.
Nice! Rich Catino’s review of Lamb of God was just “Stop yelling at me!”
Ha! Yeah, I think it works better as a live performance than something I would listen to on a long car ride. 🙂 I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did, doubly so for Teresa.
Moon Knight episode 3 was rather cool.
CP: Monument (The Inevitable End Version) — Royksopp feat. Robyn
I found this show called Hotel Paranormal. It’s narrated be Dan Akroyd. It’s wonderfully cheesy
What do you do when it’s -11 and snowy out? You put together a spring catalogue.
*sigh*
You crank the heat to max and hide under the covers.
https://www.physics-astronomy.com/2022/04/its-official-astronomers-have.html
Next Deadpan mmmeetup on Kepler-186f
Showing off a new model of theremin:
https://youtu.be/s3QVheQ_ivI
CW: Columbo S1E3 Dead Weight
If the scuttle butt is correct, Peter Falk was such an ark ward fucker on this that Eddie Albert called him an asshole.
Well this is rather marvellous:
https://youtu.be/Jyz2pVqrEkI
I saw a few authors complain recently about reopening their Google docs only to find that all of the previous day’s work was gone.
Be warned.
So our tax guy last year died unexpectedly. Very sad.
He had a friend/professional relation reach out to cover his cases for this year.
We agreed (We’ve learned that it typically saves money as well as time and stress to hire a tax pro. At least in the US).
He didn’t tell us until a few days ago that he’d need to file an extension. Wonderful. He then said we were going to owe a lot. The number gave me palpitations.
It’s going to hurt. This is going to be the most expensive year ever.
I wonder if I can just put up $3 billion to buy Twitter instead of paying.
Shit! Sorry to hear that Jack.
Ever since Bush, and then Trump, changed the tax laws to let you keep more money during the year, taking the standard deduction is a risky proposition. So we always have them take out more. While we still got a tax refund this year, it was a lot less than typical. My niece got into trouble about 10 years ago, owing something like 20k. They had to take out a loan to pay it back. Good thing Tbird has her CPA, that’s sort of a ridiculous requirement just to pay taxes.
We got into an under-withholding situation abut 15 years ago and had a pretty sizeable payment due for the day. Ever since, we’ve always made sure our withholding was high enough to make sure we get some kind of refund.
I feel your pain, amigo.
I *thought* I did this last year, but maybe I never did.
I’m going to reduce my take-home on my paycheck to $17 from here on out.
This reminds me of a joke I heard in college about the simplified tax return. Step one, record your total earnings for last year. Step two, send it in.
High res view of a crater on Mars:
https://youtu.be/LoumcmdsyHg
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/articles/letter-to-my-younger-self-mike-bossy
One of the absolute greatest hockey heroes of my youth died today. He probably could have published an autobiography, but the above “letter to my younger self” is pretty poignant. Especially today.
A good read, even if you’re not a hockey fan.
Great story.
Well nothing suspicious about that..no sir!
https://t.co/fimleBhb6h
Rob Zombie is great at slasher horror and has made some fantastic content over the year. I just can’t see how him doing The Munsters would work well. And I really, really can’t see how Sheri Moon Zombie would work as Lily. They they put Cassandra Peters (Elvira) in the movie playing a straight laced real estate agent. I think I’ll have to give this one a pass unless I hear from a lot of people I know and trust that it really does work.
https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3711182/the-munsters-behind-the-scenes-shot-gives-us-fresh-look-at-sheri-moon-zombies-lily/
My two cents-
The Munsters, which is a show I enjoyed very much as a youth, it’s just your very basic sitcom. It is loveable goofballs getting into shenanigans and straightening it out in the end because they have a lot of heart.
It’s “Everybody loves Raymond“, wrapped in Halloween.
RZ could surprise us but to date… he has shown no acumen or even any interest in that wheelhouse.
I too shall avoid this unless I hear great things.
Very well said.
I acknowledge that The Munsters was a dumb old sitcom, and is probably unwatchable now (I haven’t tried an episode in decades) – – but they did have a great look. The house, the car, the whole family. And yes, I did love it as a young TV viewer.
I know every Munsters reboot attempt has tried and failed, and I expect this one to fail too. Zero interest from me.
Remembering the Sidekick:
https://debugger.medium.com/why-the-sidekick-was-the-best-smartphone-ever-3d0baa962e5
CW: Outer Range E1
New supernatural modern day western series on Prime.
Happy Eostre, you pagans!
https://www.cbr.com/hawkeye-moon-knight-season-2-in-doubt-marvel/
As long as these characters don’t go away, then I’m OK with this news.
The potato masher vs the pineapple:
https://youtu.be/EPsMEsDOFh4
I was interested in this but he didn’t tell me a lot more than I already new from watching movies.
I would have liked to seen a comparison of the amount of explosive in each and also a comparison of lethality, given that the MK2 comes with fragmentation.
Well as mentioned in the video , since nobody uses potato mashers anymore, the pineapple style of grenade won out.
I’ve reached the same scene that knocked me to the canvas during earlier drafts.
It’s slapping me around again, though maybe not as bad.
It’s a pivotal moment, so I can’t really just leave and come back to it.
Going grocery shopping this morning. Normally hubby and I go together on Sunday but the silly store opened late yesterday because there was a holiday or something
I tried grocery shopping yesterday but all the major supermarket chains were shut on Easter Sunday.
The PIAT the almost forgotten anti tank weapon of WW2:
https://youtu.be/VyZ9rBtfrJA
Currently at accountants to sign taxes
And write checks.
Boo
HaZah!
We withheld enough that we are getting a refund that will be enough to cover the accountants fee.
So it’s a wash … and I will consider that a “win”.
I will NEVER understand your tax system.
I don’t trust anyone who does.
Anyway, I’m glad you got good news, Joe!
Agreed
To Van’s comment. The jury’s not out yet on Jack’s
It was tongue-in-cheek snark.
Thor Love and Thunder teaser trailer is out:
https://youtu.be/hBTEJ3fentw
Looking forward to when the unit ordered arrives:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/04/review-playdate-earns-its-179-price-tag-with-cute-design-memorable-games/
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/rush-moving-pictures-40th-anniversary/
Appears to be a good article about a great album.
I’m going to complain again about this difficult scene.
I know it’s gonna be great when it’s done, as long as I do it right – – but actually writing it properly is an exercise in UGGHH.
Am I crying out for attention and validation? Possibly. I gotta vent.
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”
“There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you, and there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.”
“All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
I think my boss is getting burned out. A lot of things seem to be falling behind.
I hope it’s only temporary burnout.
I been there. I feel dat.
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
“Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their carvings.”
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.”
“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
*Pictures of mountain climbers, roaring lions, eagles in flight, runner finishing a race*
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c6/80/ea/c680eafa53543372915f778e67a78b7c.jpg
There is that quip that every dead body on Everest was once a highly motivated person.
“A proctologist is basically just an over-educated hermit.”
-Inspirobot
It’s a living:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/apr/08/experience-my-scream-is-famous?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Communication is key. I thought my boss was doing something, she thought I was doing it. I guess I’m doing it on an amazingly tight deadline.
Note: not related to post above.
*sigh*
Work keeps hitting me. We uploaded an audiobook a few weeks ago for distribution. Turns out six of the eighty files didn’t upload properly. Didn’t find out until people started buying it and complaining about half chapters.
Can’t blame the distributor as they don’t actually listen to the files, just assume they are correct. Can’t blame me because I get no feedback if the files are corrupted.
*sigh* Just one of those things, I guess.
“The extent of the struggle determines the extent of the growth. The obstacle is an advantage, not adversity. The enemy is any perception that prevents us from seeing this.”
“The less pain we tolerate, the more average we become.”
“Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get you any nearer.
https://parade.com/973277/jessicasager/inspirational-quotes/
CW: Better Call Saul S6E1
It’s back for the last time..hell yeah!
Just looked out my window. There’s 5CM of new snow out there and it’s still falling.
The cars are supposed to have the snow tires removed next week
Yes, I really want to remove the snow tires next week
https://roadreports.ama.ab.ca/cameras/hwy-2-north-of-balzac-overpass-south-of-airdrie
https://consequence.net/2022/04/netflix-loses-200000-users/
I had no idea Netflix was in such a state. It makes me realize that the only Netflix I’ve watched – – maybe this entire year – – was that Rock/Ryan Reynolds/Gal Gadot movie.
“and in Russia, where the company lost another 700,000 subscribers after ceasing operations in response to the invasion of Ukraine.”
At least it’s good to see that part of the loss is for the right reasons.
RE: Jack’s writing block
Recommendation: Add a nice fruit basket to the scene to give it some color.
With plenty of tomatoes to be thrown later.
I’m starting to feel like, if there isn’t a fruit basket, I’ll be disappointed.
Maybe we should send John Goodman in Barton Fink mode to encourage him.
I’m too distracted by peeling wallpaper.
As he glances at the wallpaper, he focuses on its decrepit state. A large portion peeled back. “What is that?”, he wondered. There were markings on the back of the paper. No, not markings, RUINS! Were these left by his hateful mother? Was the old witch so paranoid that she would curse her very living space on the odd chance someone would come to corner her? Whether that was true or not, the paper, wallpaper holds a spell. One that may help him escape. God bless that cursed woman.
Apologies.
Did you mean RUNES?
Waiting to see if a snow day will be called for schools. Even so, it’s possible hubby might have to go in. Schools cannot be left empty because there will always be some parent who doesn’t listen to the news and will still bring their kid in.
However, since hubby has to take the highway into work, I’m hoping his VP will step up and go to the school instead.
Hubby went into work. Let’s see how long it takes him to get there
Hubby texted. It took about twice as long than normal to get into work. Not bad all things considered
It occurs to me today that I never had a lunchbox for school.
Either went home or had school dinners.
Elementary, pretty much always went home. Mom worked so I was on my own to scrounge whatever I could find.
Middle school was in an entirely different town so I only had box lunches then.
My first one was a beauty – – a metal lunchbox with images from Star Wars on it. Complete with plastic thermos.
Replete with slightly sour milk smell.
My Elementary school, metal lunchbox was a “Starsky and Hutch” model.
Shame I don’t still have that.
I was mostly a brown paper bag lunch kid. I’m sure I had lunch boxes when I was really really young. But by middle school, anyone with an actual lunch box would have been ridiculed.
I https://www.cracked.com/article_33548_15-books-everyone-gets-wrong.html
I disagree with some of these. Seems like a more appropriate title would be “great books have many themes. Here is why my choice of themes is more important than your choice of themes”. For example, his take that A Clockwork Orange was really about how settling down to a family life is the ultimate form of ultraviolence would seem to indicate that the theme of having the choice of good and evil (you, know… the one indicated in the title of the friken book) is totally unimportant and there really was only one thing to take away from it.
Uranus probe has an ultra-stable oscillator. https://twitter.com/We_Martians/status/1516449170814603274/photo/1
I bet it says that to all the planets..
I bet it says that to all the planets.
I ran a test and all worked out well. Krull is one of my all time favorite movies and I even have a tattoo of the glaive. I recently watched the Rifftrax version of Krull and found I was just as happy to watch them riff a movie that I love as I was to watch them riff what I would consider a bad movie. I find this especially interesting as the Rifftrax crew are a bit more rough on the movies they riff and vocal about their distaste for a film. I still really enjoyed it.
Krull remains one of my guilty pleasures for which I feel no guilt whatsoever.
I will not shame either of you guys for loving and even honoring that goofy-ass movie with permanent ink.
I really want to see a spin-off detailing the torrid past love story between the spider-woman and that other supporting character.
But please, don’t go NC-17 with it.
We never did a palooza on Krull, did we? I believe it was a contender.
Speaking of Paloozas….are we up for a Zoom call in the near future to discuss…something?
I’m trying to remember the others that we picked.
Tenet and the Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
Tiffany and I even watched TBoBS!
Yeah, time is at a premium, and will continue to be. But let’s start checking calendars.
We got to talk about Tenent we already did Buster.
. . . . I think we only did Fifth Element last fall.
I agree. I remember doing Fifth Element. Don’t remember doing Buster or Tenet.
Yeah, we only did Fifth Element. We talked about doing Buster back in November but it never actually happened.
Seeing the dentist this morning. Gonna get my teeth cleaned
Adieu to Robert Morse;
https://t.co/0JOFvcjs6v
Today was x-ray day at the dentist. Both myself and the dental assistant hate that day. I have a small mouth and it’s always a battle getting the block in my mouth. I sometimes wonder why they don’t use kid sized blocks in my mouth for x-rays, it’s what they do if I need any actual work done.
Anyway, no cavities, so that’s good.
CW: The RKO Story
Part one of an old documentary hosted by Ed Asner.
More bad news at Netflix.
https://www.avclub.com/netflix-bone-jeff-smith-original-animation-1848821909
https://www.njarts.net/as-opportunities-to-see-old-movies-fade-so-does-basic-cinematic-literacy/
Some great points made. I was concerned that the article was stating that the movies were becoming physically impossible to access – – but they’re just saying that interest in viewing them is dwindling to almost non-existent.
The fellow strikes me as a bit of “doth protest too much” Just because something old was recognized as good or “classic” at some point, doesn’t mean it deserves to stay in our cultural pantheon forever.
I have no need to drive a Model T to have a greater appreciation of my current car.
His point about the books is particularly telling – it seems like a lot of those hang on in high school reading lists largely due to inertia as much as anything. And it has certainly cost us by excluding more contemporary and, dare I even say it, diverse reading choices from entering into our education curriculum.
And, I’m certainly not saying that we shouldn’t consider older media altogether, as there is historical context to appreciate in some cases. That said, I’m not likely to ever read “Gone with the Wind” or watch “Birth of a Nation”.
This is like the opposite opinion of the music article that complained that new music had too much competition from old music “How can new musicians get a foothold when everyone keeps romanticizing the past?” Culture is very much obsessed with its own interest. The cinema of yesteryear was very concerned with its own time period, the same as today. What I think is different is there are so many forms of entertainment competing for our attention in the modern era, people will opt for what is familiar.
I think the concern I take away from this is that movies (and books) are being dismissed simply because they’re old and out of the pop culture scope.
Sure, there are certainly plenty of old films, books, etc that can fade away at no cost to anyone’s “cultural literacy,” but there are also so many that are truly important – – on a small and large scale.
Take “The Day the Earth Stood Still” from 1954, for example. It’s pacing is snail slow, its world is incredibly dated, FX laughable at places, but it’s also more than just a fun old romp to me. I’d feel like I was a less well-rounded pop culture geek if I’d dismissed it simply because of its age.
Take: “Plan 9 From Outer Space.” Good gawd is it a disaster, but I’m a richer person for having seen it, with and without robot puppets cracking jokes at it.
Or “Seven Samurai.” A 3.5 hour black-and-white 1950s movie with subtitles. Daunting, but damn, I’d be a different person if I hadn’t caught it in my 20s.
Off to the city this morning
It’s snowing. Not hard enough to stick but still, I’m getting pretty tired of snow.
How did I get roped in to coordinating Tyche’s entire programming stream for WWC? You’ve heard the term herding cats? Try herding authors.
Well. That was — not fun. Complete white out in the highway between my place and the city. I I got into Calgary it was basically raining. Before Calgary…
I hope it’s better by the time I’m ready to go back
Currently wondering how many divorces have been precipitated by one of the spouses attempting to switch to a new cell phone on the existing plan.
The horror
The horror
The horror
I guess it’s better than if you leave an unwashed plate on the draining board.
WTF is with this weather!!!
Climate change dontchaknow..
Video doorbells, record audio from further than you might think:
https://t.co/dLSzX63HVa
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/04/marriage-problems-fight-dishes/629526/?fbclid=IwAR2BV5_a9DEIQ5E86li-bweNKJxK-b-pYUJVRQ5sjiicGF53ywFrkJ2kS9M
We’ve assigned the task of emptying the dishwasher to the teenager. Which has resulted in lots of sighing.
Speaking of – – she’s 18 today! I can’t believe it. What a ride it’s been.
I gotta say, I think she’s better than most of her generation, but if she’s any indication, then there’s hope for the future.
Tell her happy birthday for me.
I keep meaning to watch this, but still haven’t:
https://www.revolvermag.com/music/see-bjork-play-badass-metal-version-army-me-uk-tv-1995
Bossa Nova cover of Private Eyes:
https://youtu.be/Xl7jEedD3X8
Having friends over for gaming today. Going to play Firefly.
Get a crew. Get a job. Keep Flying
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/138161/firefly-game
We watched the first How to Train Your Dragon last night. I forgot just how great movie is. . . IIRC, the 2nd one was at least as great, if not better. These should be counted among the best traditional Fantasy movies of all time
Never got around to the 3rd, but I think we’ll remedy that in the near future.
CP: Getting Way With It – Electronic
An old high school acquaintance did a documentary about growing up in our hometown. It’s weird seeing so many people I recognize. It’s funny and I think, would have a lot of interest for the history buff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r49uyvZKjiE&t=10s
In my limited spare time of late, I’ve been wanting to add some custom 3D models of my old hometown in Kansas. I’ve been scouring the internet for photos that I can use. This is how I stumbled on the article above. Well, I stumbled on another article that awakened some old memories, which I’ll link below.
When I was 14, I worked at one of the two grocery stores in Herington, KS, a town of around 3000 people. Mostly I would stock the food isles and help bag groceries and help people load their cars. Herington was a pretty sleepy town with a lot of elderly retirees who took advantage of its low cost of living. One of the oddest characters that I can remember was a tiny disheveled woman in her late 60s. The thing that made her memorable was she would buy seven or eight of the largest dog food bags, the 100-pounders, and have us load up her truck. I remember doing this a few times and being 14, I remember that it was kind of an ordeal loading 700lbs of dog food at a time. I would try to make small talk with her, but she was quick to shut down any conversation. She became to be known as the “Dog Lady”, apparently she lived in seclusion out in the country and took in every stray dog she could. In December of 1983, she vanished without a trace and was never found. You can read about her here: https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2021/10/the-mysterious-vanishing-of-the-dog-lady-of-kansas/
Wild that she got that much notoriety! And she was that memorable to you.
The above two comments justify the existence of the internet.
Indeed.
CW: The Man Who Fell to Earth E1
Yup, they made a tv series based on the film:
https://t.co/6aYHgCsM3c
So the series ignores the book and rather bases it’s contents on the movie version instead? That wouldn’t at all surprise me if they went that route even though I would bet that most of the people currently watching the series are familiar with neither. But more people would be willing to go out and watch a 2 hour film to gear themselves up than to read the source material. I have to say, as much as I love Bowie, that movie didn’t really move me that much. It was OK, but not much more than that.
It’s more a sequel, with the Bowie character now played by Bill Nye advising his fellow alien.
Please please tell me you meant Bill Nighy….and not Bill Nye…the Science Guy.
Oooops, yes Billy Nighy
Now I want to see Bill Nye play David Bowie in a movie.
I got tagged with picking an “art film” for watching with some friends this evening.
Knowing them as I do… I was looking for something quirky and a bit odd.
I have suggested “Amélie” and am waiting to hear back but I am guessing they have seen it.
Does anyone have any other suggestions along that line?
These are people I used to watch things like “Eraserhead” with back in our 20s so I know they have a high tolerance for odd things like that and foreign films.
Well the director of Amelie latest film is BigBug and that’s on Netflix so easy to watch.
There is also Cold War (different director):
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War_(2018_film)
The South Korean film Parasite is worth a watch.
The Japanese Drive my Car is long and on one of the US streaming channels (HBO max?)
Dammit, brain! I feel like I should have some good answers to this question.
We went with “Big Bug”
Wow. The Batman was not a good film. What a mess.
It was stylish, well-acted, with a great atmosphere and I think I slept through half of it.
Well my oven is kaput!
That is how my Sunday is going.
I am not familure with the “kaput”.
Who makes that model?
Finished watching The Batman. While it was k, I guess, it was longer than it needed to be
I stand by my review of The Batman.
I’m glad I saw it, but it still didn’t cure my Batman fatigue.
Wait, wait – – THIS would have made for the best Batman movie of all time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B90ic2iKDo
You guys need to watch this ^^
OMG
THAT is the Batman the world NEEDS right now!!!!
Alright, that was pretty damn amazing.
CW: Barry S3E1
While waiting for snow tires to be removed, Boo took me to her work where the animals live. It was fun. Unfortunately, the porcupines were on tour so I didn’t get to see them.
I didn’t go into the creepy crawlers room though. Reptiles, birds, and mammals are good enough for me.
OMG, the one where the Enterprise is taken over by hippies.
Up there with the worst of TOS, possibly the No.1
Way worse than Spock’s Brain
Owen Wilson doesn’t look much older since playing the part of Adam.
Apparently Adam gave up his hippy ways and became a general.
https://tvdatabase.fandom.com/wiki/Rex_Denning
😀 Yes, it was funny to see Charles Napier, whose career has been made playing tough guys, as the singing hippy.
BTW, I’d never seen this one before. Holy shit.
So yesterday watched what I thought was the first episode in s2 of The Flight Attendant.
All through the episode I was thinking ‘I don’t remember this from S1’.
Turns out I was watching the second episode.
Doh!
Who was responsible for Guernica:
https://t.co/NpJ74lSRF5
Meanwhile, in Star Wars deep geeking:
https://ranchoobiwan.org/
Snow tires come off my car today. Bets on how long until our next snowfall? I’m thinking before the end of the week
Was certainly nippy this morning in the UK, had to put the heating for a while.
Supposed to hit 36C here today.
Well if you go to hell at least you’ve been acclimatised by living in Arizona…
Seems much cooler.
https://www.wunderground.com/weather/no/hell
So Elon taking over twitter has got a lot of people upset and looking for alternatives, one is Counter Social:
https://counter.social/
I’m seeing a lot of push for Mastodon Social.
https://joinmastodon.org/communities
Ah McSweeneys:
https://t.co/QtDL1Lxh09
I’ve probably posted this before but this seems like a good place to repeat it –
If you have one billion$ invested in anything and get a ridiculously low 1% annual return – you will be getting paid over $1000/hr, every hour of every day.
Asleep or awake.
… and even if you have to pay taxes on that, at the end of the day you still have the original one billion to fall back on.
At $1000 an hour… 24/7, loosing perspective seems almost inevitable.
It is the sort of wealth that creates more wealth just by existing. It is like a fire that becomes so hot, any water sprayed on it converts back into oxygen and hydrogen creating more fire.
Carting that a Billionaire might have to pay more taxes is like worrying about the sun burning out.
Expecting that a Billionaire could emphathize with you is like thinking that the sun could empathize with you as well.
*yes, you can always find AN exception to anything. It’s a big universe. Somewhere there is an empathetic sun.
This would become a viral meme on the socials.
Ummm:
https://youtu.be/bE3B0SPlnww
https://comicbook.com/dc/news/the-batman-2-sequel-matt-reeves-robert-pattinson/
Batman II will soon be sliding down the pole.
I once had the opportunity to slide down a fireman’s pole (not a euphemism). I was told that I had obviously never done it before because experienced people’s hands don’t squeak as they slide down
https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2542124313?playlistId=tt0684214&ref_=tt_ov_vi
Somebody get out the big hose.
Been getting hooked on TxK on the PS Vita all over again. Will probably pick this up if it ever drops in price:
https://t.co/Rp3UEaLeuR
Tempest! That’s my kinda gaming..
I was up too late.
In related/unrelated news: I’m really getting close to the end of draft 1.
There is a fruit basket.
Ha!
I knew it!
It really ties the room together.
There. Ordered flowers for both my mom and mom-in-law to be delivered next week. I’m the good daughter… wait.
I might be the only child, and child-in-law. I guess that makes me both the good and evil child.
Wow, this is a goldmine of albums I’d like to investigate:
https://theshfl.com/guide/post-punk
Some of these are already well-known and beloved.
Just letting you know, Rhett and Van are party poopers 😉
My first thought it was some of kind of club for smashing stuff.
And yet, you went with reality
I do tend to do that.
THWACK
You wanted me to go with the rage swimmers/sperm angle?
Now there’s an out-of-context comment.
Hubby’s working late tonight. Boooooo
IDGAF about Kelly Clarkson, but this is a really good cover of a great Radiohead song. A shame that she did an abridged version. I do love that she sang the line, “We hope that you choke” to her TV audience.
https://www.stereogum.com/2184749/watch-kelly-clarkson-sing-the-hell-out-of-radioheads-exit-music-for-a-film/news/
Why is there only a single guitarist in the background where there is obviously an entire band backing her?
*Your right though, good cover)
Was it Michael Batio?
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=michael+angelo+batio&t=chromentp&atb=v314-1&iax=images&ia=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fnightout.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fmedia%2Fposters%2F48981%2Fmedium-07e384185cf2f7e2.jpg%3F1535638437
Too few guitar necks for it to be Michael Angelo Batio.
Stolen from a friend:
The reason sex with a vampire doesn’t usually result in pregnancy isn’t because their sperm is dead, it’s because the vampire can’t come inside without an invitation.
Ooof.
Is it just me or does this look like it will be bloody shite:
https://youtu.be/EgNwhFlCwwI
It looks pretty typically Mike Myers. I’ve always been meh on most of his stuff anyway.
I still haven’t forgiven him for “Goldmember”
IDK. I really like most of Mike Meyers stuff. Hopefully he learned his lesson with The Guru and this will be descent. I’ll definitely give it a whirl.
Ironically, in my I read Van’s “bloody shite” comment in an over-the-top Mike Myers fake accent.
New Rammstein album out today.
You guys got your copy yet?
No.
Nein
Aren’t they one of the original “scream rock” bands?
I recall first hearing them on a Trent Reznor-produced compilation soundtrack (David Lynch’s Lost Highway). They were amusing with their guttural German accents, but I was utterly shocked when they stormed the US mainstream a few years after.
I’d call them more of an Industrial Metal outfit. Do they have screams in their music? I’m only aware of the deep-voiced spoken word, barks, and clean singing.
I get their appeal – – the image is risque and goth. The songs are darkly fun and quirky. I don’t hate Rammstein at all, but I’m not a fan.
(Did I overdo it? I sometimes overdo it with this stuff.)
I like Rammstein fine. I have a handful of songs, but no albums. I’d definitely see them in concert as their live shows, I’ve heard, are over the top.
I like Craftwork
Listening on your pocket calculator?
See, I like Kraftwerk quite a bit.
I did. I pick up every release.
Neal Adams has died:
https://t.co/5s1FAmU2go
Oh wow. Every comics artist I know cites him as one of the true icons. RIP
Teresa and I bought some art recently. We will have these images framed and displayed soon.
https://www.sandrachevrier.com/blog/2022/1/8/triptych-release
Cool! I’ll have to drop by and see them in person.
We will need to make that happen soon.
Arguing that The Expanse is the best Sci-Fi show ever:
https://bigthink.com/13-8/the-expanse-review/
Speaking of goth music, this song has been stuck in my head lately:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3ctKGRgoJ0
They’re a recent discovery, but I like what I’ve heard. It seems like a guy from the Sales Dept and a guy from IT made a band based on their mutual love of Sisters of Mercy and Depeche Mode.
Well that is disappointing:
https://variety.com/2022/film/news/barbie-girl-movie-aqua-1235254222/
Given the nature of the song, that doesn’t seem like something that was ever likely.
Outtakes from Big Trouble in Little China. Couldn’t think of a better place to drop this link. Unless of course this was already shared here back in 2021 and I’m just late to the party as usual.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KV8UkgIDkc&t=176s
I must find time to sit and watch this.
JW: Uncharted
A film I’m rather glad I missed at the cinema.
Finally got around to watching Old Guard. Finally.
It’s fine. I’d be down for more.
Took the fam to a video game con today. Slightly spur of the moment.
Great great fun and silliness for all. Also extremely weird.
Well, weirder than usual.
Watched a video about the end of Game of Thrones and how terrible it was.
And I’m irrationally angry again and how terrible that #@$)%*#@)$*@#)$(@#)$* ending was.
Such a waste.
By all appearances, the GoT showrunners just rushed the ending so they could move on to their planned Star Wars trilogy.
We’ll never know what went down between these guys and Disney (there is an official story), but in my preferred theory, Disney cancel their Star Wars project as a reaction to their mishandling of the last 2 GoT seasons.
Having rewatched the series a couple of times, I’ve softened a bit on the ending. It still wasn’t a great ending, but one could tell there were seeds planted on Daenerys’ good/evil nature. Teresa and I have mused that if that was the note they wanted to end GOT on, maybe it would have been better if Jon Snow joined her cause and together they would rule Westros with iron fists.
I don’t know if I agree with that last point… It seems like it would have been 100% counter to everything Ned and Jon ever were to have him turn evil.
“It seems like it would have been 100% counter to everything Ned and Jon ever were to have him turn evil.”
And I agree, my point being if they wanted the shock of Daenerys turning evil, might as well commit and have Jon Snow go that path as well.
I wanted Walter Wise to show up and kill everyone.
Morning Pan
Finished season four of Castlevania last night. Sorry to see it end. Hopefully the spin off will be just as good
Holy crap, the Abe Lincoln TOS episode is bad.
Season 3 has been quite the mixed bag. Only 2 episodes remaining!
I really liked that one as a kid. Maybe I shouldn’t rewatch it as an adult.
Same
An ode to Cheez-Its.
https://www.bonappetit.com/story/cheez-its-nostalgia?utm_source=pocket-newtab
We finalized our pics for the CDN SF/F hall of fame yesterday. Of the three names, the only one you would probably know is Ed Greenwod.
Is Rick Moranis already in?
Tell us more!
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/02/1095883070/google-personal-data-delete-omit
Will Google really let you go anonymous?
So Deadpan I’m in Ohio.
I can confirm that if you don’t want to catch Covid flying is for now something to still avoid.
Hardly anybody wore masks, we were all crowded into a bus to get to the terminal in Amsterdam and a lot of people were not wearing masks on the flight to Detroit.
Enjoy Ohio! The weather and spring scenery should be perfect right now.
And enjoy your birthday, ya big galoot!
Thank you.
Happy Birthday, Van! Don’t be the fifth dead in Ohio.
Forget GoT, let’s focus on the biggest and greatest Fantasy franchise of all time. Here’s its most controversial question, resolved by its author:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=1-Uz0LMbWpI&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2QDEH7wkT6K9MC8vMT8XE8-Cu3jxdsA_NOLMJSzqmfS2T1jDb3rquDz-0
I haven’t clicked the link. This is about Xanth, isn’t it?
Justa happy birthday wish to JustaJoe!
Happy Birthday jj.
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday Joe!
Thanks everyone!
Happy Birthday, X2!
Oh look, it’s Van’s birthday.
Have a good one!
Thank you for the Birthday wishes.
I’ve brought the weather with me to Ohio, it’s raining cats and dogs.
“When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind”
Tor has a nice selection of novellas for free this month:
https://click.mail.macmillan.com/?qs=e1ffcfe26e3e4ffc0ac38c9927737fe9d021d1706883c40e0d1e89fb8f0b9517ffa0fc2f7029367797ec9c73e59a93c4c1340c70030f4b1d
Happy Birthday Van!
An honor to share this day with you!
My father’s side of the family were all from Ohio so here’s a tip … don’t say anything disparaging about a man named “Woody Hayes“!
Happy birthday, Van the Man! 😉
https://www.metalhalloffame.org/always-with-me-always-with-you/
My latest article. Would love feedback before I publicize it to the unwashed masses!
I can’t argue with your logic. There are plenty of guitarists who can shred, but only a few who can play with emotion, and fewer still who can raise it as an art form that could rightfully be called a composition. Satriani is on that peak.
Thank you, sir!
The only place I expect you to get heavy pushback is for the list of other great guitar players. Be prepared for a torrent of “let me tell you why … belongs in that list, and why you are a monster for leaving them out”.
BTW, let me tell you why Alex Lifeson belongs on that list…
Thank you! Yeah, I’m prepared for some grousing.
I recall trying to jam “Vital Signs” with a bassist buddy, and being absolutely defeated by Alex’s “simple” rhythm guitar parts. The bassist could handle Geddy’s sections, I just couldn’t hold up my end. Alex’s greatest skill is making it look easy.
Imagine being as amazing as Alex Lifeson and being the least talented guy in the Rush!
Well there’s your problem right there. Should have started out with something simpler, like La Villa Strangiato. I think the time signature in that one only changes a half a dozen times or so.
Sadly, my depth of knowledge in this Dept would scarcely get your feet wet.
That being said, “Surfing with the Alien” is the one, “Featured Guitarist” album that I own.
So we spent over $700 to frame our Sandra Chevrier limited prints at Michaels. That was with a 70% discount applied. Custom framing is pricey.
The dollar store also has frames. . .
I guess I could have bought some two-way tape.
We have three books coming out between now and August. No wonder I’m so frikken busy.
Sorry, not three, four. You’d think I’d learn how to count.
Finally got to see Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, it was worth the wait.
That’s one I definitely plan to see. At some point.
The new trailer for Kenobi has dropped:
https://youtu.be/3Yh_6_zItPU
Crap joke for the day:
Putin dies and goes to hell, but after a while, he is given a day off for good behavior.
So he goes to Moscow, enters a bar, orders a drink, and asks the bartender:
-Is Crimea ours?
-Yes, it is.
-And the Donbas?
-Also ours.
-And Kyiv?
-We got that too.
Satisfied, Putin drinks, and asks:
-Thanks, how much do I owe you?
-5 euros.
A bonus crap joke:
A guy sees a sign in front of a house: “Talking Dog for Sale.” He rings the bell and the owner tells him the dog is in the backyard.
The guy goes into the backyard and sees a black mutt just sitting there.
“You talk?” he asks.
“Yep,” the mutt replies.
“So, what’s your story?”
The mutt looks up and says, “Well, I discovered my gift of talking pretty young and I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA about my gift, and in no time they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping. I was one of their most valuable spies eight years running.
The jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn’t getting any younger and I wanted to settle down. So I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security work, mostly wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings there and was awarded a batch of medals. Had a wife, a mess of puppies, and now I’m just retired.”
The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog.
The owner says, “Ten dollars.”
The guy says, “This dog is amazing. Why on earth are you selling him, so cheap?”
The owner replies, “He’s just a big liar. He didn’t do any of that stuff.”
I’m on my walk. A woman just approached me and asked if I had a cigarette she could buy from me. Since I don’t smoke, it was a moot question, but I found it strange all the same
Maybe she thought you were a spy and that was start of the code phrase..
Ok, a question about window sills.
Where you live do the bedroom windows have large or small window sills?
The house I live in, almost all the windows (bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and downstairs toilet) have window sills large enough to store stuff on them.
The house I grew up in had some decent windowsills, but not large enough to store stuff.
I haven’t seen many houses in AZ with windowsills.
Our windowsills are large enough for a cat to sit in and that’s about it
I’m assuming you mean interior sills. From what I’ve seen, it depends on the country and the year the house was made. At least in NA, it’s become less common to put/store stuff on sills, so there’s no need or desire to make them bigger. I’ve seen it in much older houses though. Anything less than 40 years old and I’d be shocked if there were big sills in the house.
I’m thinking that might have had something to do with wall thickness? I know that older homes sometimes had thicker walls to provide better insulation given the insulating technology of their time.
Also they often had real honest-to-goodness 2” x 4” studs in the walls. Add lath board and plaster on top of that and those made the wall thicker. Thicker walls would give you a larger window sills.
I would agree with this. In Florida, many of the homes are made with concrete block. Thus, my window sills are just slightly less thick than a concrete block.
I like this “Tainted Love” cover. The video is a bit freaky though. 😀
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q45yicposyI
I’m becoming quite a fan of small(ish) museums. So spent this afternoon wandering around the Armstrong Air and Space Museum
If you ever visit, the map full of pins of visitors locations, the pin near Newcastle was me.
Gemini capsules were really tiny.
https://www.theonion.com/researchers-no-closer-to-understanding-what-the-fuck-yo-1828633404
http://jackmangan.com/on-toward-1000/
New page.