908 thoughts on “What about a new page Jack?

  1. At the restaurant waiting for my boss and one of our authors to arrive. They have pina colada pancakes on the menu. I might have to try that today

  2. I passed on seeing Operation: Mindcrime live last night, and I fear that Geoff Tate isn’t going to continue doing the full show. . .

    . . . But it turned out to be the right call to be home, because my older daughter had a rough night – – and I’m glad I was there for her.

    • Im on the fence. I was left feeling like there was a creative fight going on between those who wanted to do something special and those who wanted more network “product”. It is an anti-hero hero story that seems to be afraid to get very dark.
      Hoping the more “creative” forces grab the reigns cause I think this has the potential to be really good.

  3. I think it’s movie time.

    Today’s movie is Hungerford
    The Netflix write up: while filming his daily life for a media course, Cowan discovers his small English town may be under an ominous and otherworldly influence

  4. Oh, Nick Cave. . .

    “But what had collapsed? What is at the centre of our lives? In an artist’s case (and perhaps it is the same for everybody) I would say it is a sense of wonder. Creative people in general have an acute propensity for wonder. Great trauma can rob us of this, the ability to be awed by things. Everything loses its sheen and appears beyond our reach. We were surviving, but we were surviving in exile on the perimeter of our lives, way beyond anything that mattered.”

    https://www.theredhandfiles.com/writing-challenge-skeleton-tree/

  5. Crap joke for the day:

    My wife and I went into town and visited a shop. When we came out, there was a policeman writing out a parking ticket. We went up to him and I said, “Come on man, how about giving a senior citizen a break?” He just ignored us and continued writing the ticket.

    I called him an “a**hole.” He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn-out tyres.

    So my wife called him a “s*ithead.” He finished the second ticket and put it on the windscreen with the first. Then he started writing more tickets.

    This went on for about 20 minutes. The more we abused him, the more tickets he wrote. He finally finished, sneered at us and walked away. Just then our bus arrived, and we got on it and went home.

    • I heart you, Ed. I respect everyone’s tastes and opinions. But wow, the second Kingsmen film is possibly the worst thing I’ve seen in the theater this decade. And that includes live Rifftrax and MST3K.

      The first one was fine. Ish.

  6. Internet to my neighborhood was out of commission for about 10 hours today. A dumb-ass utility crew cut the fiber optic line feeding our neighborhood in several places digging holes to put up new poles.

    Thankfully, AT&T had their act together and got it fixed up quickly…otherwise, we probably would have descended into The Purge in a couple of more hours 🙂

  7. Rewatching Firefly is a bittersweet experience.

    It’s so good and it’s a darn shame it never got a second season.

    It’s good to only to have 15 episodes to rewatch.

  8. Crap joke for the day:

    Three Women Three women — one engaged, one married and one a mistress — are chatting about their relationships and decided to amaze their men. All three buy black leather bras ” stiletto heels, and masks for their eyes. After a few days, they meet over lunch to compare notes. The engaged women says: The other night when my boyfriend came over, he found me in the black leather bodice, tall stilettos, and a mask. He said, “you are the woman of my life. I love you”. Then we made love all night long. The mistress says: I met my lover at his office and I was wearing the leather bodice, heels, mask over my eyes and a raincoat. When I opened the raincoat, he didn’t say a word — but we had wild sex all night. The married woman says: I sent the kids to my mother’s house all excited about having alone time with my husband. Had the lights dim, candles going, I was wearing the leather bodice, black stockings, stilettos heels and a mask over my eyes. As soon as he came to the door and saw me and said,”What’s for dinner, BATMAN?

    • This is my pet peeve. Talking about the weather and taking about the meaning of life achieve the same thing, nothing!

      Introvert can come over as pretentious prigs at times.

  9. Last week I spent some time with tech support trying to figure out why our website says there is an error whenever we “publish” an update, even though there actually doesn’t seem to be. The site works fine with whatever changes I make.
    They couldn’t figure it out so put in a ticket and kicked it upstairs.
    It’s been a week and I see the problem still exists.

    Confounding tech support FTW.

  10. I’ve never read any Harry Harrison, so I started Deathworld. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28346
    It’s also free on Amazon Prime right now.

    Meh so far. It’s probably progressive for a 1960 publication, but still pretty damn dated.

    Have any of you read this one or its sequels? Or his Stainless Steel Rat books? AFAIK, they’re not related at all.

    • Yes to both.

      I love the Stainless Steel Rat books (and the 2000AD comic adaptions of three of the novels).

      The SSR for President is my fav of the series.

      Deathworld series I only read once, thought it was ok.

      • I’ve read the Stainless Steel Rat Novels. I also met him as he came to our local convention. However, this was when I was just an attendee, not working behind the scenes so I don’t have any real stories.

  11. So the remastered version of The Last of Us was one of the games on PS+ this month.

    Playing again and marvelling how bloody good it still is.

  12. Crossposting the good news here and in the Facebook group:

    On Friday night of the Deadpan MMMMMMeetup this year, I announced that I had finally, finally gotten a podcast feed submitted to, and accepted by, Apple Podcasts. I’m pleased to announce that the first-ever podcast-directory-indexed episode of “Movie Chat with the Movie Night Crew” is coming out Sunday, Oct. 6. The plan is to release a new episode every other Sunday thereafter, until I run out of raw audio. I’ve updated my website with “Subscribe” links and everything. 🙂

  13. So saw Joker, thought it was ok.

    /shrugs

    I was bemused that after all the warning about incel violence, most of the people I could see were coupled up.

  14. Waiting for a connecting flight to Hartford, Connecticut.
    Touring Harvard and Yale because someone seems to think she wants to attend one of those institutions.

  15. So after all of my big talk, I now have tickets to see Joker tonight. The teenager had plans to go yesterday, but they fell through. She still wanted to go, so here we are.

  16. JW: In the Shadow of the Moon (Netflix)

    Not a bad film at all, nice time travel story that rather skates over paradoxes, recommended.

  17. Ok, on things I don’t understand, the swipe function in iOS 13.

    It works fine, but I still find it slower than typing on the virtual keyboard.

    This was written using the swipe functionality.

  18. Watching street performers in the Boston, market square yesterday – I was struck by the thought that I was taking part in an activity that humans had been on that very spot for over 200 years. Not ancient by any means buts still …

  19. So after watching the Discovery Trek short ‘Q&A’ I really want a ST series starring the Enterprise crew seen in Discovery S2.

    • It would seem that the answer is to drop the gender question.
      After all, someone looking to cause problems could change their gender appearance, rendering the whole issue moot anyway.

      Other note – I heard an NPR piece on this recently and they indicated that it was not feasible to process the 10’s of millions of people who still have not gotten the new national ID, by next year’s deadline.

      Good times

  20. I’m rather gobsmacked that the remastered version of the first three Spyro games clocks in at 38 gigs when the originals were 700MB each.

  21. Crap joke for the day:

    Three newly incarcerated convicts are discussing how they will pass their time in jail.The first one pulls out a harmonica and says “I can play all my favorite songs on this.”The second takes out a deck of cards. “I can play poker with myself with these.”The third gets out a box of tampons. “Well, it says on here that with these I can go swimming, horseback riding, cycling, …”

  22. I have to amend my take on Deathworld. The ending was really good. If the lead character wasn’t kind of a scoundrel, it could have been a top-tier Star Trek TOS episode.

  23. Morning Pan
    I’m suppose to go to the condo association agm tonight. It’s still cold and snowy, and I’ve still got the tail end of a cold. I think I’m going to skip it.

  24. We did an impromptu overnight in Flagstaff for Fall Break. Lovely temperatures.

    Also on this particular trip: walking an overstimulated toddler through hotel hallways at 3am.

  25. Crap joke for the day:

    As a singer I sing at many funerals & I was recently asked by a funeral director to sing at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper’s cemetery out in the country. As I was not familiar with the area, I got lost. I finally arrived an hour late and saw that the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch. I felt badly and apologized to the men for being late. I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. I didn’t know what else to do, so I started to play. The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I’ve never played before for this homeless man.

    As I played “Amazing Grace”, the workers began to cry. They cried, I cried, we all cried together. When I finished, I packed up my keyboard and started for my car. Though my head hung low, my heart was full.

    As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, “I’ve never seen nothin’ like that before and I’ve been putting in septic tanks for twenty years.” Apparently, I’m still lost….

  26. I consider myself kinda knowledgeable about music genres, but “Blackgaze” is a new one to me. Metal, not R&B. I’d actually be really down for an R&B/Shoegaze hybrid.

  27. Sheesh, I barely remembered the details of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

    But I liked it the first time in 2014, and again on my second viewing, 5 years later.

  28. So I have the ticket for the Eddie Izzard show in my hand.

    The only downside Is I’m going to be in agony all evening as there is so little legroom in the seat I’ve got.

    I guess it will be time to use that strip of codeine I have for a rainy day.

  29. We discovered something interesting about our community.
    We live in a small community within the city. For those who have seen it, think like Jack’s place except we don’t have an locked gate.
    Someone new moved into the area and asked how much candy they should buy for Halloween. After giving her very different numbers, we figured out that those who live in the front half, closer to the entrance got about 100 kids last year. Those of us who live in farther from the entrance only got a little under 30 kids.
    Our community isn’t that big, so we’re not sure why the sudden drop off.

  30. Crap joke for the day:

    A man needing a heart transplant is told by his doctor that the only heart available is that of a sheep.The man finally agrees and the doctor transplants the sheep heart into the man. A few days after the operation, the man comes in for a checkup. The doctor asks him “How are you feeling?”The man replies “Not BAAAAD!”

  31. So I haven’t see a stand up comic at a theatre for at least a decade. Then two coming along within a week of each other.

    Tonight it’s Ben Elton (of Blackadder writing fame), the first half was fun.

  32. In Metal News – Static-X’s new frontman has been revealed as Edsel Dope from the band Dope and I couldn’t give a fuck about any of it.

  33. In semi-metal news – Billie Eilish selling hats with her name in death metal font embroidered on them is causing a stir (I guess?) and I couldn’t give less of a fuck about any of it

  34. So one of the trailers before Gemini Man was for the Midway film.

    Never has a film trailer left me liking for the days when war films used real aircraft. It looks like actors superimposed on video game footage.

  35. // whine mode

    So I get back from a week of visiting colleges and promptly get sick. Fever, body aches just want to curl up in a ball … but now I am over a week behind in Halloween prep. Can’t afford not to be productive.

  36. I just said, “No worries, homey,” in a text to a buddy of mine.

    Luckily, I noticed it had autocorrected “homey” to “honey” before I hit Send.

  37. A MetalSucks reader’s best of list.

    The 25 Best Metal Albums of 2010 – 2019:
    #25: Cult of Luna & Julie Christmas, Mariner (2016)
    #24: Triptykon, Eparistera Daimones (2010)
    #23: Pig Destroyer, Book Burner (2012)
    #22: Yob, Clearing the Path to Ascend (2014)
    #21: The Black Dahlia Murder, Ritual (2011)
    #20: Mastodon, Once More ‘Round the Sun (2014)
    #19: At the Gates, At War with Reality (2012)
    #18: Meshuggah, Koloss (2012)
    #17: Gorguts, Colored Sands (2012)
    #16: Between the Buried and Me, The Parallax II: Future Sequence (2012)
    #15: The Ocean, Pelagial (2013)
    #14: Kvelertak, Kvelertak (2010)
    #13: Judas Priest, Firepower (2018)
    #12: Metallica, Hardwired… to Self-Destruct (2016)
    #11: Converge, All We Love We Leave Behind (2012)
    #10: The Dillinger Escape Plan, One of Us Is the Killer (2013)
    #9: Rivers of Nihil, Where Owls Know My Name (2013)
    #8: Deafheaven, Sunbather (2013)
    #7: Baroness, Yellow & Green (2012)
    #6: Power Trip, Nightmare Logic (2016)
    #5: Ghost, Opus Eponymous (2010)
    #4: Deftones, Diamond Eyes (2010)
    #3: Behemoth, The Satanist (2014)
    #2: Carcass, Surgical Steel (2013)
    #1: Gojira, Magma (2016)

    • It’s a list. I admit that I haven’t listened to most of these albums. I for the ones I’m familiar with I would have picked other albums as better. “Firepower” is an okay album, but the fact that it is on the list of the best of the last 10 years is a little disappointing. Same with “Hardwired…”

      No Animals as Leaders, no In Flames, no Draconian, no Chelsea Wolfe or Stolen Babies. *shrug*

      • I figure that because I have an album subscription service I should at least listen to at least the first couple of songs of the albums on the list.
        Starting with #25 “Mariner”, I listened to all 5 songs. It’s good. Not mind-blowingly good, but still pretty decent.

        • #22: Yob, Clearing the Path to Ascend (2014)

          Okay, I’m familiar with this one. Yob is a band I discovered recently and I quite like it. However, the more recent album “Our Raw Heart” is superior in my opinion.

      • #24: Triptykon, Eparistera Daimones

        Two songs in and I’m moving on. I do like a few Triptykon songs, but it is a little repetitious for my taste. Okay album, doesn’t belong in this list.

          • #20: Mastodon, Once More ‘Round the Sun (2014)

            Good album, but I much prefer the Mastodon of the “Blood Mountain” era.

          • #18: Meshuggah, Koloss (2012)

            This is a band most metal heads are familiar with. Extreme metal. There are some interesting things here. The repetitious tribal vocals wear on me though. That’s the primary reason I’ve never been able to get into Meshuggah.

          • #14: Kvelertak, Kvelertak

            So I almost skipped to the next album after the start of the first song, but the track list got way better by song #3. At first I was going to peg Kvelertak as death metal band no. 319, but there is some music here. No dirt boxes on the guitar tone, just really loud natural tube (or if your European, valve) amps turned very loud and doubled. The smooth guitar tone plays well against the harsh vocals, of which I couldn’t understand a single word of, most likely because I think it is all Norwegian. Anyway, this album is going on my workout list. Heavy as hell, but it has groove, which makes it cool.

  38. #17: Gorguts, Colored Sands

    Extreme technical death metal. These guys can play, but this sounds like more of the same.
    I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I much prefer Bloodbath’s “Nightmares Made Flesh”, which would have been a better replacement with most of the albums on this list.

    • #16: Between the Buried and Me, The Parallax II: Future Sequence

      Finally, something a little different. Think Dream Theater does
      Death metal and you are close. I would still prefer Dream Theater,but this is pretty good.

      • The “Coma Ecliptic” album is mostly brilliant, though apparently too “soft” for their fanbase.

        Rhett, we saw BTBAM perform that album live in its entirety.

        I was unimpressed with what I heard of the Parallax albums (too screamy), but I should give them another chance.

          • I’ll have to give “Coma Ecliptic” a listen as it’s been a while since we heard them live. Also I seem to have screwed up the posting order. I start #13 somewhere around here.

          • #13: Judas Priest, Firepower

            I like this album fine. Better than any of the Rob Halford solo albums, falls way short of Painkiller.

          • #12 Metallica, Hardwired… to Self-Destruct

            A good outing from Metallica, but I feel these guys are running out of gas. Lacks the energy of the pre-Load days and while a competent album feels like they sort of phoned it in. After three listens I haven’t returned to it.

          • #11: Converge, All We Love We Leave Behind
            More death metal. This has a tinge of punk and their drummer is Chuck Norris. Skipping from one song to the next, they sound the same. Attitude gets you so far, then you need to change things up.

            #10: The Dillinger Escape Plan, One of Us Is the Killer
             
            So my number one rule with The Dillinger Escape Plan is that I don’t listen to The Dillinger Escape Plan unless they are fronted by Mike Patton. These guys are musical geniuses, but it mostly goes over my head. Generally too chaotic and too screamo for my tastes. I can’t deny the musicianship, but this isn’t for me. I can listen to a band of similar style “iwrestledabearonce” because they are a tad less chaotic, are more humorous and the female lead is a bit less damaging to the hearing.

          • Agreed on Firepower. It’s a good record, with a number of quality tunes. I’m torn about its place on a “Tops of the Decade” list, because. . .

            The latest Metallica appealed to their base because it’s heavy and very dumbed down. It’s fine, but “Death Magnetic” from the previous decade is a truer return to form for them.

          • #9: Rivers of Nihil, Where Owls Know My Name
            More death metal. Slightly technical, but nothing really stands out.

            #8: Deafheaven, Sunbather
            I guess this is the “shoe-gazing” metal people have been talking about. Screechy vocals, very ambient guitars and kinda repetitive. It’s fine, I just have trouble telling one song from the next. This is like elevator death metal, put it in the background and forget about it.

            #7: Baroness, Yellow & Green
            Hey it’s band that’s not death metal for a change. Another band I’m familiar with, in fact Jack and I have seen them live. I struggle to call this metal though. This sounds like an Americanized version of the new Opeth, heavy progressive rock with strong influence from the 70’s. Less leather and spandex, more denim and man buns. It’s good if a bit melancholy for my taste, but a nice change from death metal band #197.

        • #6: Power Trip, Nightmare Logic

          Unlike #7 this definitely is metal, specifically old school thrash. These are Slayer wannabees. Performed well, but again nothing new. In my opinion the band Testament does it better.

          • #5 Ghost, Opus Eponymous

            I’ve followed Ghost for a while and have seen them live. They are a great band and this is a good album. However, Prequelle is a better album and should be in this list instead.

          • #4: Deftones, Diamond Eyes

            A popular band with a numetal vibe. Korn does the style better, but okay band, okay album. Totally overrated at #4.

          • #3: Behemoth, The Satanist

            Hey, another death metal band! As death metal goes, Behemoth are pretty good. Again the vocals put me off a bit. There are worse dm vocals, but there are way better. Bloodbath does it better, Insomnium does it better, Dark Tranquillity does it better.

          • #2: Carcass, Surgical Steel

            If yourself a star if you guessed that #2 would be yet another death metal band. Hyper drumming, lots of guitar noodling and rapid shot dm vocals ad infinitum. Not bad for the style, just super repetitious. I’ll give them points for being great musicians, but it all sounds the same in the end.

          • And finally…

            #1: Gojira, Magma

            This a great band and a great album. This french band is mix of styles, some progressive, some doom and uses occasional death metal vocals. But it feels fresh and different. Probably not my number one album of the 2010-2019 era, but it is in my top ten. I might have to come up with an alternate list. I could probably come up with 10 albums, not 25.

            To recap #15, #14 and #1 are solid. Yob and Ghost are good bands, but are better represented by other albums.

          • Excellent job, Rhett!
            Even in the places where I know enough to differ with you (Meliora is my peak Ghost album over Infestissumam and Prequelle)

            I had already begun writing my “Best of the Decade” for MetalAsylum.net; I’ll share here when it’s published. My format will be a bit different. . . I’m just going to list the top records, not put them in any kind of order.

          • Thanks Jack. Yeah any list like this is going to be subjective. My top 11 for the decade, also not in any order would be:

            Stolen Babies, Naught (2012)
            Draconian, Sovran (2015)
            Overkill, The Wings of War (2019)
            One Eyed Doll, Something Wicked (2017)
            Gojira, Magma (2016)
            Ghost, Prequelle (2018)
            Cellar Darling, This is the Sound (2017)
            Vhol, Deeper Than Sky (2015)
            Chelsea Wolfe, Hiss Spin (2017)
            In Flames, Siren Charms (2014)
            Leprous, The Congregation (2015)

  39. Crap joke for the day:

    One night a guy takes his girlfriend home.
    As they are about to kiss each other goodnight at the front door, the guy starts feeling a little frisky:

    With an air of confidence, he leans with his hand against the wall and smiling, he says to her. “Honey, would you have sex with me?”

    Horrified, she replies. “Are you mad? My parents will see us!”

    “Oh come on! Who’s gonna see us at this hour?” He asks, grinning at her.

    “No, please. Can you imagine if we get caught?”

    “Oh come on! There’s nobody around, they’re all sleeping!”

    “No way. It’s just too risky!”

    “Oh please, please, I love you so much!”

    “No, no, and no. I love you too, but I just can’t!”

    “Oh, yes you can. Please?”

    “No, no. I just can’t”

    “I’m begging you.”

    Out of the blue, the light on the stairs goes on, and the girl’s older sister shows up in her pyjamas, hair dishevelled and in a sleepy voice, she says….

    “Dad says to go ahead and have sex with him, or I can do it, or if need be Mom says she can come down herself and do it……

    But for heaven’s sake, tell him to take his hand off the intercom!”

  40. Sitting here with my morning coffee, looking through my bills from my recent medical adventure.
    The total seems to be $55,539.04
    My part comes to $1,222.04

    As I approach an age in which income will be decreasing and medical expenses will likely be increasing … I am not filled with confidence.

    “LIFE is a pre-existing condition. When insurance companies figure out THAT angle, we’re all screwed.”

    • You could have socialized medicine, like those other countries, where you just have to die every time you get sick. You want that? Sounds to me like you just don’t want to put in a little work and earn the money to pay for these things. You people always just want handouts! Well you can’t take away freedom!

      /satire

  41. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but I have started reading the new “Blade Runner” comic books. I’ve enjoyed it so far. Ashina is an interesting character.

  42. So, I made the vague teaser announcement on Facebook. . .

    I shouted about my writing news to everyone over the noise at Stone Brewery during the San Diego MMMmmmeetup. . . .

    Basically, I’ve begun working again on a Spherical Tomi redux. I’m a bunch of words into book 2, and have begun work on the second draft of book 1.

    But! Even more exciting: I have a professional-level crowdfunded comic book project in the works. I’ll be sharing (carpetbombing) details about that in the months ahead. Stay tuned!

  43. As long as we’re announcing things: I just uploaded Movie Chat with the Movie Night Crew #11, featuring one of our favorite Palooza movies: Big Trouble in Little China! The podcast episode will be released on Sunday, Oct. 20. I’m on the Apple Podcasts directory, or you can click my name to go to my website (which has one of Apple’s buttons).

    So far, so good with sticking to the biweekly release schedule. I actually started working on the 11/3 episode today; I’ll go back and do the rest of the editing sometime between now and then.

  44. Well.
    Spent the morning at the emergency vet hospital with a cat who suddenly went into distress.
    After 4 hours of tests and no positive responses to the aid they were administering … they put him to sleep.
    They let my daughter hold him while they euthanized. She had been that cat’s human for the bulk of her life. Slept on her bed since her earliest memories.
    Best most snuggly of all our cats. He was the loveable curmudgeon.

    This morning has sucked.

    • I love that it’s based on the comic, and not the movie. And Lindelof has a lot of goodwill with me from The Leftovers. I’m still conflicted, but I might give this a shot.

      • Lindelof had the best response when asking about working with The Watchmen. He said that teenage Alan Moore would have said “fuck you” to DC I’ll use your Batman and Superman characters as I want. So I’m saying “fuck you” to Alan Moore and playing in the world he created.

        Works for me. I like that he is working several decades after the end of the comics, so he is free to tell a new story in the world.

  45. Crap joke for the day:

    A man is in a hospital bed completely wrapped up in a body cast.One of the nurses gave him a rectal thermometer and said,”Don’t move — I’ll be right back.”When she returned the thermometer was in his mouth. She asked in amazement, “How did you get that in your mouth, you can’t even move?””I hiccuped.”

  46. 40 days! That’s how long our election campaigning lasted. I’m sorry, but you Americans, with you never ending campaigns need to take notes

  47. I shall be sore by tonight.
    We’ve been in drought all summer, with temps 90-100 for Sept and the first of Oct.
    Subsequently I have spent the last 2 hours, hacking at the clay with an Axe. I’ve managed to dig down about a foot. Needs to be at least 4’ I would think.
    Long day still ahead.

  48. Crap joke for the day:

    An old married couple no sooner hit the pillows when the old man passes gas and says, ‘Seven Points.’

    His wife rolls over and says, ‘What in the world was that?’ The old man replied, ‘It’s fart football.’

    A few minutes later his wife lets one go and says, ‘Touchdown, tie score…’

    After about five minutes the old man lets another one go and says, ‘Aha. I’m ahead 14 to 7.’

    Not to be out done the wife rips out another one and says, ‘Touchdown, tie score.’

    Five seconds go by and she lets out a little squeaker and says, ‘Field goal, I lead 17 to 14.’ Now the pressure is on for the old man.

    He refuses to get beaten by a woman, so he strains real hard.

    Since defeat is totally unacceptable, he gives it everything he’s got, and accidentally poops in the bed.

    The wife says, ‘What the hell was that?’

    The old man says, “Half time, switch sides”

  49. I was a bit dubious about the setup for the new Netflix series “Living With Yourself” but after watching the first episode I’m hooked.

      • There’s apparently also a podcast out there of the audio from a guy’s hikes. No words, no descriptions, just footsteps.

        Jeeesh, and I wasted all that time writing, recording, and editing bits for Deadpan.

  50. Hubby may or may not be late tonight. He’s suppose to go to this thing tonight but he really doesn’t want to. He says he’ll make a decision and let me know this afternoon.

  51. So a White Castle opened 2 days ago in Scottsdale, AZ. The waits are apparently still in excess of 2-3 hours for an order. I was told tonight that they closed their doors, due to staff shortage and fatigue.

    Me, I’ve waited 16 years for a White Castle to open here. . . . I can wait a few more weeks until the lines shirnk to typical fast food.

  52. Crap joke for the day:

    Three guys went Las Vegas and after a losing their money at the blackjack tables, they decided to stay off the strip and found a cheap hotel on an old farm. The farmer had 18 daughters, so naturally the first man went up to their father and asked, “Can I sleep with your 18 daughters?”
    The father said, “No but you can sleep with the pigs.”
    The second man went to the father and said “can I sleep with your 18 daughters?”
    The father said, “No but you can sleep with the cows.”
    The third man said “can I sleep with your 18 daughters?”
    This time, the father said “yes.”
    So in the morning the three men and the father had a conversation over breakfast.
    The first man said “I slept like a pig”
    The second man said “I slept like a cow”
    The third man said “I felt like a golfer” the father asked why?
    He said, “Because I got my balls in 18 holes!”

  53. When people talk about “a fresh new take on Batman,” my eyes tend to glaze over. As much as I’ve loved Batman for pretty much my entire life, I’m definitely feeling the Batman fatigue.

    That said, the “Batman: White Knight” graphic novel is a fresh new take on Batman. I enjoyed it.

  54. Crap physics jokes:

    Heisenberg went for a drive and got stopped by a traffic cop. The cop asked, “Do you know how fast you were going?” Heisenberg replied, “No, but I know where I am.”

    Schrödinger was at an airport when the TSA agent asked to open his luggage. She popped it open and then looked up in shock: “Sir, did you know there is a dead cat in here?”, to which Schrödinger replied, “Well, I do now.”

  55. Enjoyed the new Terminator flick.

    I will of course fight Lo over Mackenzie Davis.

    Tonight is film night with one of my sisters and the film is going to be Terminator 2: Judgement Day

  56. We were suppose to have people come over for gaming this evening. I’m not sure they are still coming given it’s a veritable blizzard out there

  57. I really need to figure out which gods I pissed off and find out why they have it in for me. It hasn’t been my year.

    Context: This is the 3rd time this year that a particular company’s delivery drivers have damaged my house. Furious doesn’t even cover it.

    • Now that we’re a few hundred years into our current major storytelling models – – building on storytelling across the millennia – – everyone feels qualified to be a critique. And way too many people focus way too often on how something is “supposed to be” made, rather than its impact on us as the audience.

    • I had no idea he was such a serial skeeve, but even as much as I loved his show growing up, he did always strike me as 80s Members Only golf guy. Kudos to her for calling him out, and the other skeeves she’s encountered. Things gotta change. Her Jim Stafford story is fucking awful.

      I don’t get how her saying, “I see one of us shaved” to him is “sexually charged,” though.

  58. Last year, I couldn’t get either Halloween or Friday the 13th on either Netflix or Prime so I did Alvin and the Chipmunks meet the wolfman. This year, I still can’t get Halloween or Friday the 13th

    Now I need to decide what to watch instead

    • Bummer. That said, I’ve only had positive experiences with the two homes we’ve rented in the past, but that was through VRBO, not AirBnB. Alas, the really cool house in Malibu burnt to the ground in the 2017 California fires.

    • I hate to say it, but I don’t think it’s limited to the more unofficial sites like AirBnB. I had this same scenario happen to me in Scotland. We went to check in at our regular BnB booked through a legit site like travelocity or some such place. The owner told us she couldn’t take us in because she was passing a kidney stone, but had booked us in another local BnB at no extra cost to us. The other place turned out to be a shit hole. Beginning to think I should have reported the incident to travelocity (or whoever it was I booked it through. There were a number of sites used for that trip).

  59. So activated my Apple TV+ subscription (‘free’ for the first year as I bought a new phone).

    Only new series I tried was the first episode of ‘For All Mankind’ which I enjoyed. However Von Braun does not deserve to have his reputation rehabilitated so that grates a bit.

  60. Finally got to Peaky Blinders S5, E1. I’d heard that this was a bad season, but the first one was good. Requisite slow-motion walking scene.

  61. With Desert Pixie off to see (most of) Oingo Boingo in concert, elder daughter and I rearranged movie night from Marvel to DC, watching Batman Begins. She’d never seen it before.

    It’s . . . Still good, but has not held up all that well in a number of ways.

      • Oingo Boingo Former Members Dance Party, or whatever the hell they are really called these days, was MOST EXCELLENT!!

        Their new singer is Brendan McCreary- who
        Is the brother of prolific composer, Bear McCreary. (Those are the words from my sister).

        He had a punk feel to most of the songs. He was an excellent frontman and he was reminiscent if Danny Elfman. I last saw Boingo in 1994.

        It was great fun.

  62. So watched the first episode of ‘His Dark Materials’ (the adaption of the Philip Pullman books), very well done, check it out if you can.

  63. Finally got around to watching “First Man” today. They managed to make one of the high points of human achievement feel like watching paint dry. I was underwhelmed.

    • MINOR SPOILER

      I read his biography many years back, and I didn’t recall the climactic moment involving his daughter, as portrayed in the movie. If he really did that, then cool – – but it was news to me. I really hope it wasn’t dramatic license.

  64. Happy birthday to the romantic love of my life, whose age is the same as mine for 2 months, but who is always younger than me at heart (and technically) and so full of life and love, every day.

  65. It’s Election Day in the States, Guy Fawkes Day in the UK, and the birthday of Jack’s and my significant others. Happy Birthday T-Bird and Desert Pixie!

  66. I’m hearing warnings to steer clear of the “It Came From the 80s” magazine and Cons. The allegations are that the guy running it is a notorious scammer.

        • When you make 6 (is it 6?) bad movies in a row, people lose faith in the franchise.

          If a new Highlander movie came out, would anyone rush to the theater, even if it happened to finally be another good one? I do want to see Dark Fate, but only because of the positive word-of-mouth.

          I hope this box office failure means that the studios stop trying to milk this product, and that it can return to the hands of gifted creators who actually give a shit about telling good stories in this universe.

          • II have to admit I kind of liked T3 and T4 and really liked the television series. Haven’t seen Genesis. I’m not too interested in watching Terminator movies at the theater, but are fine for a rental.

          • The only truly awful film was Genesys. Awful. Truly awful. I, like Van, really liked the ending of T3 and I LOVED the Sarah Connor Chronicles.

            Salvation was fine.

  67. Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes.

    My family spoiled me and gave me the best snuggles!!

    Happy Birthday, T-Bird, my birthday buddy!!

  68. Crap joke for the day:

    A woman in a supermarket is following a grandfather and his badly-behaved grandson.

    He has his hands full with the child screaming for sweets, biscuits, all sorts of things. The grandad is saying in a controlled voice: “Easy, William, we won’t be long . . . easy boy.”

    Another outburst and she hears the grandad calmly say : “It’s okay William. Just a couple more minutes and we’ll be out of here. Hang in there, boy.”

    At the checkout the little horror is throwing items out of the trolley. Grandad says again in a controlled voice : “William, William, relax buddy, don’t get upset. We’ll be home in five minutes, stay cool William.”

    Very impressed, she goes outside to where the grandfather is loading his groceries and the boy into the car. She says :

    “It’s none of my business, but you were amazing in there. I don’t know how you did it. That whole time you kept your composure, and no matter how loud and disruptive he got, you just calmly kept saying things would be okay. William is very lucky to have you as his grandad.”

    “Thanks,” says the grandpa. “But I am William. The little bastard’s name is Kevin.”

  69. My night owl ways are going to make me sorry tomorrow.

    There was much boob tube tonight. Two observations:
    Say what you will of the Moffat era; The Day of the Doctor is just wonderful.

    CaptainAmerica: Civil War is still a really really good story – – even if the action scenes sometimes stretch believability, even in a superhero flick.

    Goodnight mush.

  70. So one of Desert Pixie’s birthday presents was a set of tix to an Alamo Drafthouse screening of Night of the Comet. Catherine Mary Stewart was even there for a Q&A afterwards.

    So we went tonight. I’d never seen it before.

    Jesus.

  71. Your crap joke for the evening:

    A youngster devoted an entire rainy indoors afternoon to a drawing he was doing with varicolored crayons. His mother finally looked over his shoulder, and, puzzled, asked “Who’s that you’re drawing, son?”
    The son answered, “God.”
    “Don’t be silly,” reproved the mother. “Nobody knows what God looks like.”
    Not even pausing in his task, the son announced calmly, “They will when I’m finished!”

  72. Green Eggs and Ham – – the series?

    I can’t tell if it’s the story of Sam I Am convincing hesitant guy over the course of multiple episodes, or theIt ongoing buddy cop adventures.

  73. The “OK Boomer” thing is interesting.

    I get the argument that stereotypes are harmful.

    I also recognize that a large number of people from the “Boomer” generation (and other generations) talk rivers of shit about Millennials, throwing tons of blame at them for society’s problems.

    Let Millennials have a quick, jokey way to shut that shit down.

  74. Subscribed to the Disney channel. They obviously weren’t ready for the numbers as, whenever I click on something, it comes up saying there are streaming issues

  75. So it appears that it only took about an hour for the first episode of The Mandolorian to appear on piratebay,

    It is claimed Disney is shocked by this.

  76. Well, we just took in the first episode of The Mandalorian.

    I’m less than fully whelmed so far. But, I trust in Dave Filoni, so we’ll keep at it.

    • So, they’re releasing the episodes of the new shows on a schedule, instead of dropping them all to be binged?

      We see episode 1 of The Mandalorian and the Jeff Golblum show, but nothing more.

        • I was bemused by people on twitter claiming they were going to binge watch the entire series when it was stated months in advance that it would be released one episode at a time.

        • I for one, am in favor of the timed release. Builds excitement and intrigue.
          Unless the show sucks. Then the delay allows viewers to loose interest … which is the natural order of things.

          • Counterpoint: Let people dictate their own viewing schedules.

            We rarely watch more than one episode in a night in our house, but we often do 1 show each night. The Game of Thrones experience was not improved by the weekly schedule – – especially when it started to go off the rails at the end.

          • Lo Pan is correct. It’s one thing to binge an older show that you missed or came late to (we’re getting caught up on Downton Abbey now after being off it for several years).

            But, when something is brand new like this, I do prefer the staged release. It gives “everyone” time to catch each episode, digest, discuss, argue, etc.

            When Netflix drops a whole season of a show at once, there’s a lot of pressure to power through them all to avoid spoilers and be able to be part of the conversation about a show.

  77. “Sexy Priest” indeed!
    Btw – the lead is good and all that but I think the actress that plays the sister deserves an award for her role.

  78. I wish I could have videoed the baby’s reaction (& ensuing commentary) of her watching The Mandalorian episode 1.

    It was Ellen Show & youtube-worthy.

    “Oh it’s a baby green egg”

  79. Got a pal of mine to play hookie and we went to see a matinee of Ford V Ferrari.

    Nice historical drama.
    I give it two thumbs up but it’s not for everyone. It’s a very niche movie and I’m surprised it got made.
    Definately not a “date” film (unless you and your significant are into sports cars). Not mindless action adventure (action but not mindless).
    If you’re a car guy, go see it. Otherwise, check it out when it hits cable.

  80. The Black Hole was 30 years outdated when it was released, which makes it semi-quaint now. Still kind of a slog. I was just waiting for the scenes I remembered from childhood.

    • Ah, but it does have that cool/creepy score to go with it. It’s amazing that Disney ever made that movie. I’m halfway surprised they included in the Disney+ library.

      • It’s not a great film but I’m a huge fan of what it is/was and represents today. Ed’s right – whoever greenlight that film was smoking the same stuff that whoever came up with that ending was.

        Also some of my fav robots in cinema

      • Ed: I do love the strings. Those need to be there in the inevitable reboot.

        LoMaximillian: I sorely coveted my friend’s VINCENT action figure, back in the day.

        • Still got my model of the Maximillian robot, still love the film and it’s soundtrack.

          But what is fucked up is that I watched Jackie Brown at the cinema and not once did I realise Robert Forster had also been in The Black Hole.

  81. So the final season of The Man in the High Castle is now on Prime.

    I may have to put off watching it till Xmas or tonight..I just don’t know,

  82. Sooooo…… The AIE pre-sale site is officially live and taking beta contributions today. Bear in mind that this is not the official Kickstarter – – this is the pre-sale. The real “Jesus take the wheel” moment begins with the KS launch in January.

    https://www.amievil-graphicnovel.com/

    If you see site issues. . . I probably know about them. There’s still some tinkering to be done. But by all means, don’t be shy to report bugs.

    Thanks for all of the support you guys have already thrown my way. No one should feel “on the hook” for this project. If you’re a regular here, you’ve already gone above and beyond for me over the years.

  83. Please dont forget the “################################################################” before your comments in the RoS chat. SOme of us won’t be able to see it for some time.

    Thanks

  84. Tried watching See on Apple TV. Didn’t make it all the way through the first episode. I think it’s a part of the thing I’ve been going through for the last few years. As I age and experience more content, I’m better able to see the formulas. This one has a lot of formulas (and not good ones at that) going on and it’s all I can see.

Leave a Reply to Vanamonde Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *