Magic, L5R, Shadowfist, Bridge — Small potatoes. (Bridge is pretty close though, but although I’ve played it for nearly 40 years, for fifteen of those years I likely only played only a few sessions a year).
I’ve played more Slay the Spire than any other game. Whereas other people would come home and watch TV, I’d Slay the Spire. I am currently in the steam store trying to download Slay the Spire II. Talk amongst yourselves.
(Actually, my transaction got bonked and I can’t buy it! Trying again in a few minutes).
I’ve now played High Frontier, 3rd Edition, High Frontier 4 All and I owned Rocket Flight (aka Lords of the High Frontier). I’ve never played 2nd Edition, but as far as I know, there was no second edition, but I’m sure a comment will correct me. I’ve gone from “indifferent” to “suggest” back to “indifferent” and I’m back to “suggest.”
Not a blanket suggest …. I see a yearly game that involves all of the expansions1 and that 10 hour behemoth is not for me. High Frontier has a snowball growth. The first exo-factories give you better patents (hopefully) which means your second rocket has first opportunity to explore and exploit key sites.
This may not be true of the most experienced players (several of which are in that yearly game). but it’s certainly true at my level and in one of my three games so far this year I busted site after site in my first hour, squandering my early launch advantage. If I had rolled well, though, I would have snowballed in a positive way. Like many of Phil Eklund games, HF is more simulation than game, with scoring tacked on. That sounds too harsh — the scoring scheme is actually reasonable. Quite often the ‘winner’ is the person that objective observers would say “Yeah, that space agency did the best.” But me personally, when I’m getting snowballed, it’s can be a bit of a drag. Three hours is often enough to determine that.
There is also the brain-burn factor. High Frontier isn’t as complex as Magic Realm, although the fact that its in the same conversation is telling. No, High Frontier’s brain burn is the paradox of choice. In the Realm, you start of with a world where you are going to wander around for a bit … the great treasures could be anywhere. Sure if you are hunting dragons you will have some preferred destinations, but the early game is exploration. In space, we’ve got decades of exploration done before the first mission launches. The map is known, and cosmically complex.
Even ignoring anything past the asteroid belt2, your first mission has plenty of options limited by hydration, distance in burns and/or time, landing thrust …. and also preferences relating to spectral type and risk management. Then you have to calculate fuel, and High Frontier’s ingenious implementation of Tsiolkovsky’s rocket equation take some time to think about. Even initiates with a few games under their belt (such as myself) have to ponder mission planning.
After about three hours, I’m tired.
That being said, I’d like to learn the Bernal and TW thruster rules (some modules in HF4), so I watched the heavy cardboard rules video (and am watching the playthrough) and I’ve set up a solo game (of HF3) which I might play off and on. A solo game has the “I can get up and come back to it tomorrow” advantage.
So, High Frontier is back into the suggest rating. I’ve re-caught that particular bug.
Possibly including expansions still under development ︎
Possibly a mistake, and I also typically ignore Mercury and Venus (a definite mistake) ︎
A fair chunk of gaming was with the TaoLing1. All of Pagan, Air Baron, Jump Drive & Shards were with him (and most of my ’62 and Chu Han). Now that he is no longer a student, I expect a much lower count next year …
I think I played ~90 unique titles, which is honestly fairly high. Full List on BGG
New to Me Games
As is always the case, most new games are firmly in indifferent category, but maybe with a novelty bonus. I think my Game of the Year is likely Chu Han, but even that is somewhat disappointing, because for games by Tom Lehmann, I’m hoping for 100+ plays, Chu Han petered out just north of 20. It’s a disappointment that most designers would kill for, but still.
I’m also saddened that I only got in 3 games of Stationfall and Pastiche. Those need more plays.
Trends and Notes
My Weds night group has pivoted into 18xx for a large percentage of the sessions which accounts for most of my ’46 plays (20+) as well as Shikoku 1889, 18 India, 1822PNW, 1822MX, 1848 Australia. I got in a game of 1833NE, and am looking forward to its GMT release. (I also play some 18xx online on 18xx.games)
100 Meters — Not perfect, but one of the better things in recent memory. After Top Gun came out, one of my brother’s college friends made a parody “Top Thumb” about two guys trying to be the best grocery bagger in the world. (“Tom Thumb” being a local grocery chain). Neither of those is art1, and we’ve seen the genre plenty of times (particularly in sports/competition Anime, which has the protagonist trying to excel at something). This movie (not a series, that’s important!) questions what it means to dedicate your life to a pursuit (the 100M dash), and how your answer changes over time.
Not perfect, sometimes infuriating, but after it was over I kept thinking about it.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die — I liked the ‘cafe clip‘ (which is just ~2 minutes of the opening scene) quite a bit. The movie doesn’t sustain that high (difficult to do for two hours) but is genuinely funny and yes, also talking about the present as much as the future. I suspect this will be a well regarded cult classic, but not a monster hit.
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence — A strange movie, with much of the cast working in their second language. Not only featuring David Bowie, but also Takeshi Kitano’s first film and he’s just as magnetic. I also rewatched Moonage Daydream on Netflix, which I saw in theaters 3.5 years ago, and enjoyed it again.
The Muppet Special — OK, I haven’t actually watched it except the clips on Youtube, because I’m not going to subscribe to a new streaming service just for a 90 minute special, but it’s close. Seth Rogen understood the assignment … don’t change a damn thing.
The Closer — An OK police procedural, mostly. Formulaic, but sometimes strays from “Whodunnit?” to “Howcatchem?” (or “How to get them to confess.”) I’ve taken to fast-forwarding through her personal life. Update — The main character also has a level of hubris that would make Achilles and Homer shake their heads; and this also gets more annoying as the series progresses. But I did finish it.
Ford vs Ferrari — One of those biopics where the ending has you going “Nope. Too fanciful. Didn’t happen.” But it did. Wild. Solid movie, great cast.
Koshien: Japan’s Field of Dreams — A documentary covering two of the teams trying to make it to the 100th annual Koshien, Japan’s World Series of High School Baseball. Of interest if you like baseball and/or Japan.
My Dinner with Andre — I watched this after reading the New Yorker article on Wallace Shawn. Interesting enough to watch throughout in one sitting; but not interesting enough to keep me off my phone, scrolling Reddit. Ebert called it “a film that has no cliches,” (although it has become one). But (some of the) conversation struck me and stayed with me because the topics are still relevant2, and arguably more than in the 80s … I suppose that’s why Wallace Shawn & Andre Gregory were avante-garde … reality caught up with them. I suspect this is actually a “Recommend” assuming that the idea of a 2-man 2-hour play where nothing happens except two men discussing art, living and reality sounds interesting.
The Outfit — Kinda like a Mamet one-set play (really two sets, the front of the shop and the back) and dealing with crime and double crosses … except the dialog isn’t up to snuff and the ending is too pat. Still, not terrible.
Maybe Not / Turned Off
Nurse Jackie — After the first season I thought this would be a maybe but the second season focused too much on stalkers, bullies, etc that I simply never finished a (20 minute!) episode in one sitting. Finally turned it off for good.
I never saw Top Thumb, but probably a safe guess. ︎
In particular, the idea that media consumption degrades our intellect and autonomy, which hit pretty hard because I was … scrolling through reddit. ︎
Every now and then you see a monster hand. Playing with Roxie in a special club game I pick up:
S: KQx H: QJ9x D: 9x C: K98x.
I am not against opening light, but balanced, aceless eleven counts don’t require any pushing (in second seat). It goes around to fourth seat and my partner bids Two Clubs. I have a monstrous hand opposite a two club opening, so I make a waiting Two Diamonds bid (which creates a Game Force). Partner bids Three Diamonds (a real suit). I have a real problem. I do have four hearts, and I can bid it, but I only have four hearts. I bid Three Hearts. Hopefully partner will bid 3 NT and then I can bid … I’m not sure. 6 NT should be safe, but I’d love to have 5NT as “Bid 6NT with a minimum, and 7NT with extras.” But I’d never seen used that bid in 37 years … now I’ve had two hands in under twelve months where I could use it.
Partner now bids Four No Trump. Ugh. Is that blackwood? Quantitative showing extras? I’m clearly not passing. Unfortunately in our version of Roman Key Card Blackwood my correct bid (assuming I think it’s blackwood) is Five Diamonds (showing no key cards). I’d hate for us to be on the wrong wavelength and playing in 5 Diamonds when 6 NT should be ice cold …. although it may only be cold if I’m declarer, and I wouldn’t be. (The opening lead could be a club through my king into RHO’s AQ). I wish my correct bid was five clubs, because then I’m sure I wouldn’t be passed. But I grit my teeth and bid Five Diamonds.
Partner bids Seven Hearts.
I was totally going to pull “Six” hearts to no trump, but should I pull seven? Well, now I’m sure partner must have four hearts (at least). Partner bid seven hearing I have no key cards …. so why ask at all? Partner must have AKxx(x) of hearts and a solid diamond suit. Either partner has the black aces, and I’m not sure what the point of key card was, or partner has a black suit void and was looking for the last ace to decide between hearts and no trump.
We don’t play Exclusion Key Card (the most dangerous convention), so hrm. In the end, I figure that this is a club game and any grand slam should be a 75% even when its as obvious as this. If I convert to 7NT and it’s right, I gain maybe 2 matchpoints. If we’re off an ace I give up 10-12. The only real issue is that sometimes 7NT makes when 7H is off, due to a bad trump break. But against that on a bad diamond break I may need to ruff the suit good (imagine partner with AKQxxx or AKxxxxx).
I pass, but not without some thought. If I get doubled I’ll run. (In fact, a clever expert versus another expert may double a making 7H knowing that 7N goes down … but against this pair I needn’t worry about that). LHO leads a diamond …
I’ve seen monster hands before, but Roxie puts down …. a kaiju. Calling it a monster truly understates how powerful the hand is.
S: A H: AKxx D: AKQJTxx C:A
When the opening lead doesn’t get ruffed and both follow to one round of trumps I quickly claim.
I’m still not sure what the 4N bid accomplished. Sadly with us playing 14-30 Key card, my five diamond response gives no real followup to ask for the heart queen (If we played 03-14 where five clubs shows zero, then 5 Diamonds would ask1 … In hindsight I think that perhaps Roxie should have bid 5NT which typically shows all the key cards and then see what I do. But normally the response is to show kings, and she really wants to know that I have the Q (and hopefully J) of hearts, or Q of hearts and a black king.
Roxie just decided that I was likely to have the HQ or 5+ hearts, and hope for some luck, but I think she should have bid 7NT directly … a bad heart break would doom 7H, but 7N might make if I had the diamond nine! and both black kings or a KQ pair (all of which I had).
This is one of the hand where a relay system2 (which lets you ask for Aces, then Kings, then Queens and sometimes even Jacks) would be useful, but the memory burden of that system daunts even me.
Checking the scores I am at least comforted to know that my guesses at the end were right. 7NT scored 14/15 (three tables bid it3) and 7H was 12/15, and the rest of the field were in various small slams (or 7D).
In any case, Roxie’s hand is now the new record holder. This hand was pat of TheCommonGame, which encourages clubs to all use the same hands (during the same day) so that multiple clubs can compare records (and experts who analyze the hands can share them wider) so presumably lots of people playing bridge yesterday picked up Hand #17 and went “Wow!”
Update — Apparently Schenken would handle this nicely, see comments.
Which way to order them is a hot topic. Eddie Kantar’s 200+ page book on RKC goes into great detail on this, and advocates swapping them around based on if the strong or weak hand is asking, but despite being able to quickly absorb new conventions and entire systems readily, I found myself very confused on reading it and normally just play Kickback (where you bid 4 Spades to ask for aces instead of 4 NT), which alleviates the issue by ensuring you always have more space. Kickback has it’s own set of problems, but I understand them. ︎
Nature (well, several PhDs published in nature) declares that current AI/LLM tools meet the criteria for AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). I think there are some semantic arguments, but I (basically) agree.
Michael Rosenberg is on the short list of “best (bridge) card play technician in the world.”2 He’s been presenting some of his notes on card play and I’ve literally never heard of some of these rules, but they make total sense. There Are Many Situations. (This is deep stuff, Rosenberg says its all theoretically correct but even most of his national+ caliber partners don’t play it. I think I understand the 87xx example and some of the others).
What Happened to Amazon3 — How culture changes. (I heard a quote a few years ago that resonated with me. “Culture is what you let people get away with” (or “Culture is what you tolerate.” If you no longer tolerate well-intentioned failure, you won’t get innovation). After that I skimmed some of the author’s other articles and came upon an interesting and I think correct take on Iron Man — The Suit was Never the Point
My oldest (not the TaoLing) was actually a test baby at Duke’s Psychology Dept. for some experiments, and so was presented with very cute “B.S.”, “M.S.”, and “Ph.D” degrees (all in “Baby Science”) which sadly did not help her resume. There is no point to this footnote, I just find it adorable. ︎
Arguably, he is the entire list, although partially that’s because Bob Hamman is over 80. ︎
I added this link to the list before seeing that Amazon had lost $~400M in market cap over the last week or two. ︎
Had a small group and so I played two games of Attika, which is an excellent two player game. Some people (not me) like it with three, but nobody (that I know) likes it at four. Reminscent of Hex or Go, a ‘connection’ abstract but you also are managing resources (cards and more importantly tempo) to try to get all your pieces down. If you make a connection its an auto win, so you mainly exploit it by threatening when it will be expensive for your opponent to block. Fast and on my fifty by fifty list.
Welcome to the Dungeon — A cute little push-your-luck filler, kind of like “Name that tune.” “Well, I can beat that dungeon that has five monsters!” “Six monsters” “Six monsters but I’ll leave my vorpal sword behind!” etc. Does not overstay its welcome, at least with three players. Not earth shattering, but I got it for $5, so sure. Indifferent.
Magical Athlete — I was sure I had played this before when it was announced, but it turns out that I was thinking of Monster Derby. This one reminds me of Mrs. Tao’s name for Strat-o-matic Baseball: “Bunco for Boys.” It’s an amusing way to spend rolling dice for 30 minutes. This one comes closer to overstaying its welcome. (But we played with six players). Great production values with “Kids Educational Cartoon” style coloring, drawing and meeples. I’m sure if you brought this out with chits it would lose ~3 BGG rating points, deservedly so. Indifferent.
Welcome to the Dungeon — A cute little push-your-luck filler, kind of like “Name that tune.” “Well, I can beat that dungeon that has five monsters!” “Six monsters” “Six monsters but I’ll leave my vorpal sword behind!” etc. Does not overstay its welcome, at least with three players. Not earth shattering, but I got it for $5, so sure. Indifferent.
Magical Athlete — I was sure I had played this before when it was announced, but it turns out that I was thinking of Monster Derby. This one reminds me of Mrs. Tao’s name for Strat-o-matic Baseball: “Bunco for Boys.” It’s an amusing way to spend rolling dice for 30 minutes. This one comes closer to overstaying its welcome. (But we played with six players). Great production values with “Kids Educational Cartoon” style coloring, drawing and meeples. I’m sure if you brought this out with chits it would lose ~3 BGG rating points, deservedly so. Indifferent.
Steam is having a sale on board games, and I’m debating whether to buy any. I’ve mainly not been too happy with board games on steam (see Mr. President and Space Corp), but for the price of a decent lunch having a game I might spend 20-100 hours on seems reasonable, so I’m considering getting one or two.
Also,GMT has announced a digital version of Space Empires 4x (dropping in June) That could be excellent as the real problems with the game were the accounting (and related errors) and digging up a bunch of counters without revealing what you were buying … both of which should be easily fixed by being on a computer.
Steam is having a sale on board games, and I’m debating whether to buy any. I’ve mainly not been too happy with board games on steam (see Mr. President and Space Corp), but for the price of a decent lunch having a game I might spend 20-100 hours on seems reasonable, so I’m considering getting one or two.
Also,GMT has announced a digital version of Space Empires 4x (dropping in June) That could be excellent as the real problems with the game were the accounting (and related errors) and digging up a bunch of counters without revealing what you were buying … both of which should be easily fixed by being on a computer.
I saw many new games, but I suspect that most (or all) of them are easily skippable. It did warm my heart to see a bunch of “Play this new game, let us know what you think, and you might win a copy” going unplayed, because they didn’t seem any good at a glance.
However, one game that did catch my eye is Giants Moving Tiny Furniture, which has a bunch of small cute furniture and you (and team-mates) have to move around on top of the box. I only watched ten seconds, but it seemed like a delightful idea, sort of like a pop-art Jenga. From glancing at the BGG page, after I left, it sounds like Welcome to the Dungeon (which I haven’t played but picked up a copy at the bazaar) where there are things to do and you bid on less and less time (etc) to finish it.
Oh, and you have to use only your pinky? In teams?
I arguably could have played more games, but 2 days is enough for me.
Update — More Thoughts
There were quite a few new “ginormous overproduced games” being played. (At least) one of which was being promoted by the creator/designer/publisher, but they just all gave off the feel of “You wouldn’t look at this twice if it was cardboard chits, and it you shouldn’t look at it twice just because it doesn’t.” There were a number of boxes that looked to be a cubic foot (roughly). Just hulking square boxes taking up space.
Amusingly, one of those was … Food Chain Magnate Deluxe Edition! But that box at least still has the retro 50s artwork that might make people take a second glance instead of “Pew Pew Space-ships!” or whatever. I keep saying I need to put FCM back into my bag (although the new Indonesia is getting good reps this last month), but I’m happy with the old edition, which takes half the space even if I bring the expansion box.
Speaking of “Cool!” (that is in fact, not). The organizers piped in “Geek Music” to the venue. By which I mean …. Movie Themes. Oh, its the Imperial March! Lord of the Rings! Harry Potter! Superman! I may be in the minority, but I hate that. The music is fine, but two days of that got old quick. If people want music, they’ll bring it themselves.
It would be rude if I took out my air pods and played X music on speakers because I thought it better fit the mood (whatever that was), unless I asked everyone. Normally I would have just moved away to a quiet area, but the open gaming was pretty much right up against the speakers. The local game store also does it, and I get it for a game store, where most people are wandering in and spending a few minutes browsing (or playing games for a few hours)23, but for two days it gets old fast.
I believe that I read somewhere (probably in Why we Buy by Paco Underhill), that piped in music does lead to more sales, and stores often carefully curate their sounds. So that makes sense even if I personally hate it. But a convention is a pre-sale buy a ticket thing. ︎
Although now that I realize that Underhill makes his living on consulting for this kind of stuff (coupled with the replicability study in psychology) I wonder if that is in fact true, but I suspect enough companies have A/B tested the hell out of that to verify it. ︎
I saw many new games, but I suspect that most (or all) of them are easily skippable. It did warm my heart to see a bunch of “Play this new game, let us know what you think, and you might win a copy” going unplayed, because they didn’t seem any good at a glance.
However, one game that did catch my eye is Giants Moving Tiny Furniture, which has a bunch of small cute furniture and you (and team-mates) have to move around on top of the box. I only watched ten seconds, but it seemed like a delightful idea, sort of like a pop-art Jenga. From glancing at the BGG page, after I left, it sounds like Welcome to the Dungeon (which I haven’t played but picked up a copy at the bazaar) where there are things to do and you bid on less and less time (etc) to finish it.
Oh, and you have to use only your pinky? In teams?
I arguably could have played more games, but 2 days is enough for me.
Update — More Thoughts
There were quite a few new “ginormous overproduced games” being played. (At least) one of which was being promoted by the creator/designer/publisher, but they just all gave off the feel of “You wouldn’t look at this twice if it was cardboard chits, and it you shouldn’t look at it twice just because it doesn’t.” There were a number of boxes that looked to be a cubic foot (roughly). Just hulking square boxes taking up space.
Amusingly, one of those was … Food Chain Magnate Deluxe Edition! But that box at least still has the retro 50s artwork that might make people take a second glance instead of “Pew Pew Space-ships!” or whatever. I keep saying I need to put FCM back into my bag (although the new Indonesia is getting good reps this last month), but I’m happy with the old edition, which takes half the space even if I bring the expansion box.
Speaking of “Cool!” (that is in fact, not). The organizers piped in “Geek Music” to the venue. By which I mean …. Movie Themes. Oh, its the Imperial March! Lord of the Rings! Harry Potter! Superman! I may be in the minority, but I hate that. The music is fine, but two days of that got old quick. If people want music, they’ll bring it themselves.
It would be rude if I took out my air pods and played X music on speakers because I thought it better fit the mood (whatever that was), unless I asked everyone. Normally I would have just moved away to a quiet area, but the open gaming was pretty much right up against the speakers. The local game store also does it, and I get it for a game store, where most people are wandering in and spending a few minutes browsing (or playing games for a few hours)23, but for two days it gets old fast.
I believe that I read somewhere (probably in Why we Buy by Paco Underhill), that piped in music does lead to more sales, and stores often carefully curate their sounds. So that makes sense even if I personally hate it. But a convention is a pre-sale buy a ticket thing. ︎
Although now that I realize that Underhill makes his living on consulting for this kind of stuff (coupled with the replicability study in psychology) I wonder if that is in fact true, but I suspect enough companies have A/B tested the hell out of that to verify it. ︎
Day One’s entry is For Sale …. um, ok. It’s a fine game and all that; but I have no idea why it is a game that “made meaningful contributions to the board game hobby in the areas of innovation, artistry, and impact.”
Day Two is Puerto Rico … OK, this is the “We didn’t put this in the initial class for the reasons you expect, but we are putting it in” day.
Day Four is Love Letter … I like Love Letter and I think it’s a good game. I think it’s a bit wild that a small game from 15 years ago is in before …. lots of other games.
I’ll update this post as I notice the games this week (assuming I do).
Day One’s entry is For Sale …. um, ok. It’s a fine game and all that; but I have no idea why it is a game that “made meaningful contributions to the board game hobby in the areas of innovation, artistry, and impact.”
Day Two is Puerto Rico … OK, this is the “We didn’t put this in the initial class for the reasons you expect, but we are putting it in” day.
Day Four is Love Letter … I like Love Letter and I think it’s a good game. I think it’s a bit wild that a small game from 15 years ago is in before …. lots of other games.
I’ll update this post as I notice the games this week (assuming I do).
Still enjoying The Great British Baking Show as a cozy watch. But even if you don’t watch it, here’s a great phrase — “A total bag of pants” (meaning a disaster). Has entered my lexicon and I’m experimenting with all the “<container> of <garment>” combos. And also watching Prue Leith (an 80 year old proper British Matriarch type, but with an Austin Powers 60’s flair) innocently ask things like “Tell us about your beaver,” or “I am interested in your large nuts” never gets old. Sadly only have a series or two left to watch.
Maybe
The 9th Configuration — An insane 70s movie (although released in early 80) set in a military insane asylum where the inmates apparently have access to a Hollywood prop department to enact whatever crazy stuff they want. Written, Produced and Directed by William Blatty (fresh of The Exorcist) so the studios were willing to let him do whatever he wanted. Some great scenes and mostly great but nonsensical dialogue. I had to watch it in chunks. Definitely a noble failure and not a cookie cutter movie.
Grantchester — A Masterpiece Mystery that is definitely ripping off Father Brown1. (Except that the priest is Anglican? Church of England? In any case, Not Catholic and it’s post WW-II instead of WW-I). But I like Father Brown and this is close enough for me. But as the series goes on it gets less about the mystery of the week and more about the main character(s) being miserable, and lost a fair chunk of the joy2. (Netflix only has the first four of the ten(!) seasons).
In the Mouth of Madness — A (90s) rewatch of which I remembered almost nothing. Attempts to capture Lovecraftian dread, but the execution isn’t quite there. Some genuinely creepy moments but also too reliant on “repeated dream awakenings” and re-used footage. Amazing to think that John Carpenter did this a decade after The Thing, because the monster effects are a step down; less is more would have been so much better here3. But …. any schlock horror movie is elevated by David Warner & Jürgen Prochnow looks very anti-christ-like. Clever ending, but “ah, that’s clever” clever instead of a gut punch. I think it works better if you simply lop off the last few minutes.4
The Long Kiss Goodnight — (90s Rewatch, pt II). Shane Black makes another Shane Black movie. Action movie? Check! Partners who don’t like each other? Check! Banter? Christmastime? Checkity Check! Sadly this isn’t up the the heights that Lethal Weapon started, but its not bad.
Nobody Wants This (S2) — A reasonable ‘comfort food’ romcom/sitcom. Sometimes veers into cringe, but it understands that a romcom/sitcom must be funny (and heartwarming) so that both Mr. and Mrs. Tao will watch.
Under the Skin (book) — Read this after watching the movie (see Sep-Oct). Good, but in a very different way (books can show inner monologues, movies are visual). I think that the near silence of the movie was a good choice, but that necessitated changing the story to make it much more ambiguous. Note — Not for the squeamish.
Wick is Pain — Documentary on the John Wick Franchise. Reasonable if you liked the franchise. What impressed me was seeing stunts that I said “Obvious CGI” in the theater and then discovering that the CGI was only for the environment, not the stunt itself, which was real. (The building fall at the end of John Wick 2)
Maybe Not
Turned Off / Not Recommended
“Oh, Hi!” — I saw this recommended by Marginal Revolution. The plot is that a young couple go on a weekend vacation, find some bondage equipment, he gets tied up and (after sex) reveals that he doesn’t consider this a serious relationship, at which point she leaves him tied up and tries to convince him that she is girlfriend material. BUT nobody is sympathetic. She’s crazy. (It’s established that she considered stabbing her last boyfriend). “Leave him tied up” isn’t played for laughs, and isn’t funny. On the other hand, she’s right. You don’t go on a weekend trip alone after dating for four months and expect her to think it’s a fling. In Re: “Crazy girl” vs “Idiot Boy” I find both guilty. Turned off at the 30 minute mark (or less), tried to continue a few times. Failed. Now re-reading Marginal Revolution I realized that “better than expected retelling of…” isn’t necessarily an endorsement.5
Tenet — This finally showed up on streaming and … man; was Christopher Nolan trolling us the entire time6? “What if I just didn’t have a plot at all, but did as much cool stuff as possible?” Turned off before the hour mark; tried again and couldn’t get through another few minutes. It’s like a Bond movie with truly excellent set pieces and locations. (Off-brand Bond but not skimping on quality). Plus Time-travel special effects. But when you break it open it’s just Nelson Munz “Hah hah!”-ing you, the sucker audience.
OK, its an actual series of books on its own that started a few years ago, and the author’s father was formerly the Archbishop of Canterbury, but still … ︎
After finishing season 4 I realize that part of that was the requirements to switch the lead actors. ︎
Such as the people in an oil painting moving. If they never moved on camera and if you thought they had but weren’t sure, it would have been creepier. ︎
For example — Sam Neill’s character “sees” the carnage in the hallway (a ‘less is more shot’, where you see vague shadows and hear screams), realizes the door keeping him the sanitarium is busted … and then chooses to retreat to his room & close the door. ︎
But then I see it’s on his years best film list, so uh, whatever. ︎
No, mostly he’s pretty good. I guess this was just a misfire. ︎
Still enjoying The Great British Baking Show as a cozy watch. But even if you don’t watch it, here’s a great phrase — “A total bag of pants” (meaning a disaster). Has entered my lexicon and I’m experimenting with all the “<container> of <garment>” combos. And also watching Prue Leith (an 80 year old proper British Matriarch type, but with an Austin Powers 60’s flair) innocently ask things like “Tell us about your beaver,” or “I am interested in your large nuts” never gets old. Sadly only have a series or two left to watch.
Maybe
The 9th Configuration — An insane 70s movie (although released in early 80) set in a military insane asylum where the inmates apparently have access to a Hollywood prop department to enact whatever crazy stuff they want. Written, Produced and Directed by William Blatty (fresh of The Exorcist) so the studios were willing to let him do whatever he wanted. Some great scenes and mostly great but nonsensical dialogue. I had to watch it in chunks. Definitely a noble failure and not a cookie cutter movie.
Grantchester — A Masterpiece Mystery that is definitely ripping off Father Brown1. (Except that the priest is Anglican? Church of England? In any case, Not Catholic and it’s post WW-II instead of WW-I). But I like Father Brown and this is close enough for me. But as the series goes on it gets less about the mystery of the week and more about the main character(s) being miserable, and lost a fair chunk of the joy2. (Netflix only has the first four of the ten(!) seasons).
In the Mouth of Madness — A (90s) rewatch of which I remembered almost nothing. Attempts to capture Lovecraftian dread, but the execution isn’t quite there. Some genuinely creepy moments but also too reliant on “repeated dream awakenings” and re-used footage. Amazing to think that John Carpenter did this a decade after The Thing, because the monster effects are a step down; less is more would have been so much better here3. But …. any schlock horror movie is elevated by David Warner & Jürgen Prochnow looks very anti-christ-like. Clever ending, but “ah, that’s clever” clever instead of a gut punch. I think it works better if you simply lop off the last few minutes.4
The Long Kiss Goodnight — (90s Rewatch, pt II). Shane Black makes another Shane Black movie. Action movie? Check! Partners who don’t like each other? Check! Banter? Christmastime? Checkity Check! Sadly this isn’t up the the heights that Lethal Weapon started, but its not bad.
Nobody Wants This (S2) — A reasonable ‘comfort food’ romcom/sitcom. Sometimes veers into cringe, but it understands that a romcom/sitcom must be funny (and heartwarming) so that both Mr. and Mrs. Tao will watch.
Under the Skin (book) — Read this after watching the movie (see Sep-Oct). Good, but in a very different way (books can show inner monologues, movies are visual). I think that the near silence of the movie was a good choice, but that necessitated changing the story to make it much more ambiguous. Note — Not for the squeamish.
Wick is Pain — Documentary on the John Wick Franchise. Reasonable if you liked the franchise. What impressed me was seeing stunts that I said “Obvious CGI” in the theater and then discovering that the CGI was only for the environment, not the stunt itself, which was real. (The building fall at the end of John Wick 2)
Maybe Not
Turned Off / Not Recommended
“Oh, Hi!” — I saw this recommended by Marginal Revolution. The plot is that a young couple go on a weekend vacation, find some bondage equipment, he gets tied up and (after sex) reveals that he doesn’t consider this a serious relationship, at which point she leaves him tied up and tries to convince him that she is girlfriend material. BUT nobody is sympathetic. She’s crazy. (It’s established that she considered stabbing her last boyfriend). “Leave him tied up” isn’t played for laughs, and isn’t funny. On the other hand, she’s right. You don’t go on a weekend trip alone after dating for four months and expect her to think it’s a fling. In Re: “Crazy girl” vs “Idiot Boy” I find both guilty. Turned off at the 30 minute mark (or less), tried to continue a few times. Failed. Now re-reading Marginal Revolution I realized that “better than expected retelling of…” isn’t necessarily an endorsement.5
Tenet — This finally showed up on streaming and … man; was Christopher Nolan trolling us the entire time6? “What if I just didn’t have a plot at all, but did as much cool stuff as possible?” Turned off before the hour mark; tried again and couldn’t get through another few minutes. It’s like a Bond movie with truly excellent set pieces and locations. (Off-brand Bond but not skimping on quality). Plus Time-travel special effects. But when you break it open it’s just Nelson Munz “Hah hah!”-ing you, the sucker audience.
OK, its an actual series of books on its own that started a few years ago, and the author’s father was formerly the Archbishop of Canterbury, but still … ︎
After finishing season 4 I realize that part of that was the requirements to switch the lead actors. ︎
Such as the people in an oil painting moving. If they never moved on camera and if you thought they had but weren’t sure, it would have been creepier. ︎
For example — Sam Neill’s character “sees” the carnage in the hallway (a ‘less is more shot’, where you see vague shadows and hear screams), realizes the door keeping him the sanitarium is busted … and then chooses to retreat to his room & close the door. ︎
But then I see it’s on his years best film list, so uh, whatever. ︎
No, mostly he’s pretty good. I guess this was just a misfire. ︎
Via Marginal Revolution: We are repaganizing (in a Christian Magazine …. discusses Christianity, Abortion, Infanticide, Peter Singer, Medically Assisted Suicide and Paganism)
The Zvi’s thoughts on AI during the Winter Solstice — We will win.
Was there a second starting point of life that formed 1 cm long beings and died out on Earth 2B years ago? As always, Betteridge’s law looms large, but …. Possibly.
“Imagine that you’re much smarter than me, and I also party all the time and abuse drugs while you live a completely sober lifestyle. If I end up more economically successful than you are, you need to look inward and ask what you’re doing wrong. That is the situation of East Asia relative to the US and Europe.” Human Capital, Not Industrial Policy.
A 4th Chinese Poem constructed in a 29×29 grid of characters (similar to a magic square) palindromic poem that produces 4,000 sub poems (that rhyme and are coherent) depending on how the subsections are combined & read. Written (Embroidered, actually) by a 21 year old to woo back her husband, who had left her for a concubine. (“At the center a single character she left implied but unwritten: 心 (xin) – “heart.” Later copyists would add it explicitly, but in Su Hui’s original the meaning was even more beautiful: 4,000 poems, all orbiting the space where her heart used to be.”) A nice introduction (Twitter) . Wikipedia Page.
Feral Historian discusses The Doomed City, a soviet SF novel (published after Perestroika) and uses footage from Dark City1 because they share themes. In fact, after seeing the video, Dark City seems to clearly rip off The Doomed City’s “Experiment” and motifs, but Wikipedia does not show a link.
Video Game Trailer that I watched on a whim, and was delighted to find it giving off “Iron Giant” vibes. Coven of the Chicken Foot.
Anmelden
