Reading:
I started and finished Saga book one. Artwork is beautiful, characters so far seem interesting and to have an end goal, and the constant changes of scenery makes it feel fresh. I’m more than sold on getting the rest and if you are also thinking of starting, try to go in as spoiler free as possible.
Watching:
Decided to rewatch all the animated Asterix movies. Why?
1: Nostalgia.
2: To know if they hold up to my standards.
3: Because there’s a new CGI one coming out in December!
I’ve watched the first four so far. Interesting going through in order of release with rapid succession and seeing the clear jump in technology.(with some entertaining but also slightly racist scenes. )
I also saw the second Maze Runner movie. It feels like watching hunger games and twilight. Pandering and mass produced for teens. I mean, i’ll at least give it credit for continuing it’s storyline where it left of, and sticking to it.
Also, ALSO started Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood by strong recommendation of @xist. Seven eps into season 2 and so far loving it. Before starting i did not know of all the dark themes and adult tone. All this time i thought it was a kid friendly shounen. My favorite aspect of the show is the grounded magic system, that probably could rival Avatar’.
Listening:
People have already mentioned the new Gorillaz album The Now Now, but Fire flies though.
i think it’s awesome…
after it was done i that that tingle in the corner of my mouth, like i wanted juuuust another bite… alas, these types of limited/“mini” series don’t get to be something to just gorge endlessly on…
also; jeff daniels
Watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine currently. It’s not as good as I thought it would be, but it grew on me over the first season, but probably the best news this month is that Dorian Concept is releasing an album on Brainfeeder in August. Got his new song on repeat all day.
I’m listening to Turandot Act 3 Nessun Dorma performed by Giacomo Puccini. |
While I read through The Great Hunt (book 2) of The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, which is the greatest fantasy literature series to ever exist (second of course to The Lord of the Rings). I have been going through this series as slowly as I can because I know what it is like to finish a good literature series. World just seems way too empty. I’ve been on book 2 for way too long, but with only 14 entries in the series, it’ll fly by quick…
Rewatched Batman Vs Superman Dawn of Justice…I know the DC movies get slaughtered in the reviews but I really like the darker tone, and much prefer Affleck’s Batman to Bale. I’ll get pilloried but I preferred it to Civil War…
In the middle of watching Warhammer 40k Ultramarines (watched about half of it yesterday, will finish up tonight when I get home). Unsurprisingly, It does what it says on the tin.
And the sixth Alien Omnibus got released today (Cauldron and Steel Egg). Looking forward to finally getting around to these at some point…I’m so glad libraries do digital lending now.
I liked that movie, but here’s the catch…I liked the uncut version! The cut version is horrendous in the sense that it makes no sense. I do not get how they got away with putting it out to theaters cutting what they cut. It removes absolutely important elements of the story line that pushes serious foundations to the story and characters that, without it, causes the film to burn to the ground in absolute failure.
I watched the cut version first and was really angry with it, except with the wonderful performance of Wonder Woman, Aquaman (character wise, jokes, depth, history, interactions etc) and the SPOILERS SPOILERS late minute appearance of Superman (really love this rendition of Supes, he’s incredible) but overall I was angry. And then much later I watched the uncut version and absolutely loved the film.
So I think that if they had shown that movie instead, people would not have hated on it as they did. It was actually a really good movie, but someone purposely cut it to shreds to make it poor quality.
Now…
As for me, I’m currently watching (don’t judge me, or go ahead, because I love the show) the latest episode of The 100. I really like how the show can capture such grey areas for a CW/teen show. There’s no overtly good or bad guys, there are just people trying to survive however they can.
Watched a fair few things, which I’ll essentially list with thumbs up or thumbs down…after Infinity Chamber I watched another low budget sci-fi called Time Lapse which was also quite good. Then a Netflix feature called Calibre, which again was ok. On my DC kick I rewatched Justice League, which having watched twice now I actually think I enjoyed more than many Marvel films. Blasphemy I know!
Next up, Snowpiercer. This appeared to have great reviews and quite a cast of stars, so I thought great, another sci-fi that went under my radar, lets kick back and enjoy. I really didn’t like it…emperor’s new clothes syndrome for me. Although I did enjoy Rampage in a brainless kind of way and Ready Player One was good too, although not as great as the book.
And finally, fresh from the mistake, I tried Khali the Killer. Dropped after 15 minutes…eugh…
Also, even though I pretty much grew out of melodic death metal years ago, especially anything which has clean vocals and actual singing, I dug up an old CD for some reason and have been jamming this on repeat -
Podcasts - Pretty much the same as the last time I posted up in this thread:
SuperBestFriendsCast, Round Table Live, CoOptional (all three video-game related)
Not Another D&D Podcast, The Adventure Zone, Critical Role, GamersTable (RPG, either AP or game-related)
Pratchat (monthly review of one of Terry Pratchett’s books)
Get The Knaak (general topics from author and sports historian Jerry Knaak)
Books - Little bit of this, little bit of that:
The Handmaid’s Tale - Read it because I was curious to read the book, since Mrs. Paradox was watching the show on Hulu. Plus, it was free thanks to my Amazon Prime subscription. I think I may need to go re-read it, because I’m still not sure if it was supposed to be a post-conflict near-future sci-fi take on what can go wrong if an overly-zealous religious/patriarchy-based society takes over, or if it was more of a take on what women go through to survive, in a society that doesn’t really respect them. Either way, it was a break from my usual reading.
Orconomics - fantasy/satire on the economics that might appear in a fantasy world. I’m not that far into it, but I’m liking it so far.
Movies - Haven’t really watched anything lately. Might get around to watching The Last Jedi since it’s now on Netflix.
TV - No major watching of anything from the networks, here. Still getting in a little bit of The Expanse when I can, and I did burn through Luke Cage season 2. It was good stuff.
I’ve been giving everything in the new anime season a try. Tons of garbage as usual but here’s some that might be worth watching… Planet With - Neat little robot show that started out much better than I had expected, hopefully it stays that way. Harukana Receive - Girls playing Volleyball, not as much fanservice as you’d expect (for better or worse), the first episode was actually good. Island - Nice summer lolis.
This is the exact kind of thing I need in my life right now, thanks so much, @techparadox!
A podcast I listen to that I think is hilarious and I think you’d like if you’re into British humor – which I’m gathering you are, since you like Pratchett – is My Dad Wrote a Porno, it’s about… a guy who wrote a really cringy book. It’s actually brilliant, tbh.
(I don’t know if you were even looking for podcasts, but you shared something nice and I felt like sharing something nice back, that also cheers me up when I’m feeling down)
Let me know how you like it once finished, it has been on my list for a while.
I was looking for an image/title of a book to talk about here… a book I read a long time (5-6 years) ago about goblins encountering an ancient deity that they championed back into ‘power’… but instead I found this…
Has anyone ever heard of this? Can you tell me why I haven’t heard of it before??
They only do one book (and subsequently one podcast) per month, usually released on the 8th, and they’re only up to their ninth episode so far so there isn’t that much backlog to catch up on if you’re looking to dive in. They’re covering ALL of Pterry’s works, not just the Discworld series, so if you’re like me and have only really read the Discworld series (and Good Omens), they might broaden your horizons a bit.
I’ll have to check out the one you suggested. Sounds interesting, and I’m always up for some British humor.
I picked it up as a Kindle Daily Deal for something like $2, so I wasn’t really expecting much out of it. According to my Kindle I’m about a quarter of the way through it and things are starting to pick up, action-wise. There have been funny bits here and there - nothing that has literally made me laugh out loud, but they definitely got an amused chuckle out of me - and I’m enjoying the protagonist’s general take on the fantasy world in which they live (and all the politics that go on in the background). I’ll be sure to get back to you once I get done with it and let you know my final thoughts.
The World of Warcraft books are actually really good. Also they surprisingly don’t need a subscription fee and a doctor’s note to get through like the game.
If you’re looking for another game series that’s actually ok, try the first three Mass Effect novels by Drew Karpyshyn (the fourth isn’t by him and is terrible, I haven’t read the Andromeda books so no comment on them).