Finished Parasite Rex yesterday, started the Hot Zone today.
I didn’t mean to have a popular science kick, but these books have been waiting to be read for years D: Parasite Rex was my mother’s and sat unread in the basement for over a decade and then on my shelf for the better part of another. The Hot Zone was one of my own purchases, maybe five years back or so, when a story I’m working on was still concerned with ebola (it’s changed a lot since then). I’m a bad reader 
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You’re right about this, actually.
Luke Cage is a lot about black culture and identity, so yes music plays a huge role and I often felt left out with most references, but just overall it was really well made. Yes, Cottonmouth was amazing, like the black Kingpin, but Diamondback in the second half was much needed for me, because it didn’t feel like a superhero show before he turned up in his suit.
And I thought Bushwhacker was incredibly interesting. Again revenge as the motif and I love stories about revenge. Plus the second season opens up culturally as it isn’t all about black identity anymore and focuses more on the people rather than race.
But that’s just my opinion. If you didn’t like it, that’s fine. No need to rewatch it.
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Episode 1 down for Knightfall. I like it so far.
There’s also just something very powerful about the idea of a warrior group protecting the downtrodden and I like how the Templar Order (ugh, too much Assassin’s Creed made that hard to say) is being portrayed in this show, but I honestly doubt they had the time and wealth (or rather, freedom) to act in this way. Feed the poor, regardless of religion? I doubt the Pope allowed that. Help the Jews from discrimination from Christians and Muslims at the time? Not in the best interests of the Pope, so no.
I mean I’m certain their creed bid them to do it, but I’m also certain in most cases they didn’t do it because of rules and interference with states (such as Paris). And I’m not talking about the 90% non-combative Templars that did charity work in the Christendom, because they did do that kind of thing for just about everyone under the Grace, I’m talking about the highly skilled warriors of God walking around like monks lending a hand.
Regardless of that though, so far it has been entertaining. Hope it stays that way.
I understand that they were cultural references, but I felt they spent way too much time focusing on music rather than tell us Luke’s story and get us into his mindset or show us his life. I mean, isn’t that more important? I understand trying to get the references in there, I do, but at some point they started paying far more attention to that than anything else. Even if it were well made.
I get your love for revenge stories though, I like them too (I actually liked the Punisher show even if it were really slow). There’s just something always fulfilling about a good revenge story (Kill Bill anyone?). 
And I don’t usually like settling on an impression of media with one watch, so that’s why I’d like to give show/movie etc another chance if I didn’t like them the first time. If I didn’t, I would have been dead set on hating Batman vs Superman for the cut version. 
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How did you like Parasite Rex? I like Zimmer’s work, but never got around to reading the book he wrote.
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It was good! It was well-written enough that even the many parts that weren’t new to me were still interesting. It’s fortunately not as sensationalist as the title makes it sound.
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I personally thought the Punisher show was pretty terrible, but everything Avengers ended up grossly overrated. That awful Whedonism that made Marvel unbearable up through Captain America 3 was a hit with every pretentious journalist out there.
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I hate it when a show has to force a character to be super obvious in his evils to convince the audience another person’s wrongs are somehow right.
Knightfall spoiler discussion
so in Knightfall King Philip’s wife is a cheater. Okay, she can’t help she don’t love her husband, that’s cool, but he himself comes off as this really nice guy at the start who doesn’t understand why his wife has suddenly become so cold towards him and just wants to win back her affections. But then to convince the audience that Joan’s actions aren’t bad in any such way, or selfish, they start to later reveal just how horrible Philip is so that we accept the actions done against him are justified.
It’s like when you’re reading a book and the bad guys have a leader that tells his underlings to do something… “or die”. 
All of this directly conflicts with what is said and known about Joan and Philip as lovers and rulers. Philip was said to have respected and loved her so much he made her Regent, and she him that she never visited her homeland to secure him and France.
The show twisted history to have this pathetic drama.
That kind of annoys me, so I’m taking a small break to start up Britannia.
Finally, someone who sees Marvel as I do.
EDIT
I hate to update this and flood the page, but I’m so excited by the idea of it I have to share! Grimm news! Grimm could be returning with new adventures under a new MC (female) with the original creators acting as consulting producers. But that’s not all, original characters could make appearances as regulars or reoccuring characters. AND AND AND!
Iron Fist’s Melissa Glenn would be writing it!
I hope it goes through. Grimm was such a fantastic, original show! 
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Been listening to some metal the past few days, but I also love video game music, chill stuff, remixes, all kinds of music. 
I’m basically a metalhead at heart 
and into video game music. What kind of stuff are you guys listening to or recommend? Not country or rap. Sorry to whoever likes that, but it’s just not for me. If you like it I won’t judge you. 
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Define “metal” and the sort of stuff you’re listening to. It’s a broad genre, and whilst I could recommend you something based upon the sort of stuff I like, I have the distinct impression that’s not really what you’re looking for. If you could give us an idea of where you’re at now that’d give everyone ideas to work with.
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Hard to define but heavy metal with screaming but not screamo like a lot of people listen to and it doesn’t have to have screaming either like dream theater. But bands like lamb of god, in flames, soilwork, megadeth, dark trainqullity, amon amarth, devil driver, dream theater just to name a few. It’s more melodic and has a good rhythm to it rather than just sounding like a bunch of random notes put together. It depends on what I feel like listening to so it’s all over the place. I don’t know how else to define it. It’s definitely newer metal not that much of the older stuff but megadeth is one of the exceptions. I really like in flames especially their older stuff. There’s also spotify and stuff like that to help me find stuff but that’s probably the best I can explain it. If you don’t know what to recommend it’s totally fine.
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So here’s how I would personally divide up the bands you list into categories -
Lamb of God and Devil Driver are what I would regard as Groove Metal
In Flames, Soilwork, Dark Tranquillity and Amon Amarth are Melodic Death Metal (although of varying quality through their catalogues)
Megadeth I’d class as Thrash Metal…although that’s probably a little bit of a stretch.
Dream Theater are Progressive Metal although I’d probably just regard them as Progressive Rock.
I haven’t really listened to much melodic or groove based stuff for a while, am not a fan of Dream Theater and Mustaine’s voice grates on me. However…
If you want more groove in your metal try Machine Head, Meshuggah, Pantera, Gojira, Entombed and Ektomorf.
If you’re more into melodic death (not late In Flames or most of Soilwork’s output though) then give Eucharist, Miseration, The Few Against Many, Hypocrisy, The Black Dahlia Murder, Autumn Leaves, At The Gates, Intestine Baalism, In Mourning and Carcass a try. The list of listenable material here could go on endlessly…
Thrash I’m less of a fan…obviously you’ve probably already done Metallica and Slayer but you could also try Voivod, Kreator, Exodus, Testament, Municipal Waste and Vektor (I really recommend that last one).
Prog I don’t really listen to at all…the obvious recommendations based on everything so far would be Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson’s solo stuff, Opeth (latter day, with earlier falling under Melodic Death), Periphery (although they’re djent really) and Protest the Hero.
Also based on the above also try Revocation, Dissection (you’re probably better off starting at Reinkaos and working backwards, which is the opposite of what I’d usually recommend but…) and massive outliers but two awesome albums - Circle Takes The Square’s release As the Roots Undo and A Wilhelm Scream’s Ruiner.
That should give you something to sink your teeth into for now. I could probably go on recommending you stuff indefinitely…
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But he said he doesn‘t like Screamo? 
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Hence the term “massive outliers”. I recommended it solely because it’s somewhat different from the average “screamo” album, and has much more progressive tendencies. (I wouldn’t have put Raein or Nine Eleven there for example).
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I do very much love this song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXNIzxJjWnU
And this…man do I love this kind of music. Sets my soul free. Just so beautiful.
(from his album “Dream Catcher”)
Native American music is one of the most beautiful things you can ever hear. Also, so is Indian music.
And prepare for spiritual AWOKEDNESS. Though seriously, please, if you have an open mind about music, give this one song a try. Just once. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPd9be8R5bA
(16,347,505 views! That’s a lot of people enjoying this song!)
*The language is Navajo, and the song is sung by an elder recanting a giant’s lamentation about an owl stealing a ball from him.
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So…anyone remember this song?
Other songs from the 90s xD
Natalie Imbruglia - Torn
Tonic - If You Could Only See
Donna Lewis - I Love You Always Forever (this played so much in my state, especially in markets lol)
Duncan Sheik - Barely Breathing
Des’ree - You Gotta Be (still think she has a great voice)
Also, listened to this:
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Regional exposure may vary
https://youtu.be/a4eav7dFvc8
https://youtu.be/brzzM31G4x8
https://youtu.be/FkSl9GGOFHM
https://youtu.be/PYP-NxkfjkE
https://youtu.be/0yBnIUX0QAE
https://youtu.be/eY2dcd_OtlU
Why are my links not video-ified? Anyhow, all worth a gamble for 30 or 40 seconds…
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Only one I heard of before was Dancing in the Moonlight. also, from my experience if you post too many youtube links in a spoiler tag they break.
EDIT
Newest episode of Titans came out.
Spoilers
Okay, it is ultra violent and clashes with DC heroism, but I really like the show. I mean I’m really upset that they can’t tone down the violence because the DC heroes I know, except a few who purposely refuse to “follow the good rule”, do not kill or seriously maim, but beyond that everything seemed okay.
The newest episode was a bit slow towards the story though, in fact we didn’t get much of it as we learned more about Hawk and Dove (love Hank and Dawn!), and got some really adorable Game of Thrones references from Raven, but oh well. If my worst complaint so far is that you can show someone a picture of Starfire and no one would be able to tell who she was supposed to be or that Dick seems more like Jason Todd, then that’s a good enough complaint for me. 
Cliffhanger sucked though! Really wish there were previews for the next episode.
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i plan to see if i can’t get to watch
a little later
stumbled on the trailer, and it had this nice camp “Eight legged freaks” sense to it, but with ants! 
@hivefleetbothan
i hope it’s as silly as it looks 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oHGUr6HEow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDyb_alTkMQ
PS. REEF - Place Your Hands 
because you hideded them 
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeDHWn0DE_0
In this, John Two-Hawks comes out and sings a song from his album called “Stone People” before “Creek Mary’s Blood”, which features his vocals (in Lakota). He also gifts us with his AMAZING cedar flute playing y’all.
(If I knew all of the words and grammar of Lakota, I would translate the lyrics of the Lakota here but hahaha )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z33CwdtUIA
*Ly-O-Lay Ale Loya means “Circle Dance”. Funnily enough, a lot of the vocals are passed off as NA languages and chants, but they’re actually Sami joik. Doesn’t matter in the end if they’re beautiful though, right?
Oh my gosh! That’s Enigma’s Return to Innocence! I recognized it instantly! But this is soooo beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing this with me (I shall find a high quality version!). Native American, Indian etc music is a passion of mine, as are their languages! Although I always suspected it was not a NA language in Enigma’s song, I never suspected that suspicion to be true! And I’ve never even heard of the Amis language before! It’s beautiful!
Hahó hahó, philámayaye ye! 
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Jim Sterling also watched this and I don’t think he was very impressed -
http://www.thejimquisition.com/the-spin-off-doctors-it-came-from-the-desert/
How about -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxvkI9MTQw4
and
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