Bartimaeus

Aftersun (2022). Barebones premise: a divorced Scottish father takes his young teen daughter on a vacation to Turkey for her birthday. I really enjoyed it. I'd recommend it to @PK htiw klaw eriF...and probably most everyone else who enjoys slow character-driven films.

If anything, I was thinking the opposite...like Gilmore Girls, but twisted and cruel. I think that could be a lot fun. Unfortunately, I should've realized that it would be a needlessly dark and serious drama through and through instead, as that seems to be the only kind of remotely thoughtful television being made anymore. But this is the trailer that I watched (...not sure if it really has spoilers or not?): An actor can definitely over-do "flat" to the point of them no longer seeming like they're an actual human being, and this trailer just screams typical Korean ridiculous over-acting to me. Maybe this trailer is just a bad look, though...trailers usually are.

I missed the "grows up" part when I initially read this, so I was really excited to see a 8-16 year old girl getting revenge, but I read the full premise on Wikipedia and it still sounds sort of interesting. My only issue is that I largely can't watch Korean TV/movies due to the painful over-acting, Squid Game coincidentally being a prime example. Sigh, the trailer is also trying to do everything it possibly can to make me not give it a try. The weak...and willful? Oh, these are probably two separate groups, not one group of people who are both weak and willful. Right...although, you'd think "the willful" would be considered among the strong. Maybe it's a classic tale of The Borg and The Three Meatbags? This meatbag is too weak, and this meatbag is too willful...but this meatbag, this meatbag is just right.

My mom tried to raise me that way, but...no surprise for anyone here I'm sure, it didn't work on account of me being an inhuman monster. Indeed, as a child, I made the mistake of saying I didn't like the texture of a strawberry-rhubarb bar thing* at a large family gathering thingy. Some hurt feelings later, I learned that day I would just never eat at a family gathering or practically anywhere else outside my own home ever again if I could possibly avoid it, no matter how hungry I was. Better to always come up with some reason why I couldn't eat: I feel very sick, I already ate, I think I'm allergic, it gives me headaches, I might have celiac disease...whatever you need me to say say so that I don't have to eat your food without hurting your feelings, just tell me and I'll say it. It did have the side-effect of making me better appreciate my mom's cooking though, I can only imagine how much more miserable my childhood would've been if I had been stuck with some other midwestern floozy who didn't know how to make anything Mexican or Asian. *it was more of a strawberry-rhubarb goop than a bar, really - my gosh, aunt veronica, learn how to use an oven before you kill us with that crap

idk, when I see pictures of giant huntsman spiders just chilling out on walls, I think "eh, at least she actually earns her keep around the house unlike my stupid cat" oh who's a good spider, who's a good spider? youse a good spider! -spider expert

the way he's constantly looking back at it to make sure it hasn't moved an inch is pretty hilarious not gonna like, seems like a terrible pet, even as far as snakes go; stays still and does absolutely nothing for weeks at a time, and then when it moves it's probably to murder you maybe you have to be a snake person to "get" it?

I'm just glad I'm not a Minnesota sports fan. That path there only lies suffering.

Unfortunately, it remains to be seen if Khris Middleton is healthy this postseason...between Brook Lopez's bargain bin contract expiring, Middleton seemingly becomingly injury-prone and increasingly inconsistent, and everyone just being so danged old (Lopez 35, Holiday 32, Middleton 31), I fear the time of this Buck's core group of players will be soon coming to an end. It's a really nice, balanced, and likeable core, too.

i am hoping that in a couple of weeks, i can just quote your post and say "well, that sure didn't age well" (though real talk, i very much expect the warriors to beat the kings - that admission won't stop me from pooping on the warriors if they did lose, though)

Wildly inconsistent teams aren't typically good for championship runs since they usually turn in a spat of bad play that they can't recover from at some point, especially playing against the best teams, but once in a while they make it all the way.

When I am told "there are some paladins staying at the inn", my expectation is that these paladins aren't currently butchering everyone and burning the whole town down, which I did not have any guarantee of in 3E's usage of it. If the word "paladin" is stripped of the meaning that literally everyone knows it to mean (heroic warrior of some goodly-ish ethos), then you might as well throw away the term entirely. "Champion" is a pretty dumb-sounding name, but if it's simply a base stepping stone to some other more specific concept like a paladin, anti-paladin, blackguard et al., then it's fine. I wonder if there's any overlap between the people who genuinely love and empathize with the idea of being a paladin and generally fascist morons. Can't really see why else the class would much appeal to anyone, but maybe I'm missing something.

I think that approach is actually a lot more respectful of the idea of a paladin than what 3E did. I found it difficult to conceptually reconcile the "paladin" with it being perfectly okay to be murderously evil and the like - what does the term "paladin" even mean at that point? Rather than let "paladin" potentially mean the complete opposite of what everyone's idea of a paladin is, they decided to rename the class while then reserving the term for defenders of good, bringing it back to its classical meaning even if it's no longer the proper name of the class. I mean, as much as paladins can be defenders of good, being lawful stupid with the equally stupid evil that results and all.

I keep forgetting to watch Into the Spider-Verse. I've heard that it is good even by the standards of people who don't care at all about superheros/Spiderman. Maybe someday. . . . Altered States (1980). Drug movies are always so danged dull. It has a neat poster, though.

Whoops...I mean, I don't see anything, . Thanks for trying to puzzle it out, . The girl was basically responsible for getting people on-board while also doing other miscellaneous duties for the conductor. Honestly, they were less "trains" and more in-town trams, if that makes sense. I didn't see them go anywhere but inside the city. So I'm not sure how that squares with the title.

Hiroshima ni Ichiban Densha ga Hashitta (1994). I don't know what that translates to, presumably something about trains in Hiroshima - online translators don't like to work with Hepburn/Romaji. A short film (30 minutes) about a young Japanese girl living through the end of World War II. She lives in a kind of all-girl barracks and goes to a little school and works as a kind of concierge for the trains. I didn't understand most of the dialogue (technically, any of it), as it doesn't have subtitles and I don't know Japanese, but it seemed to have what I felt was a thematic focus about lost childhood and the war having robbed unwilling and unknowing innocents just trying to live their lives, children and adults alike. Just people trying to find some small joy in life and move on from it all. PICTURED ABOVE: The main character's sister...or cousin...or friend...or maybe neighbor, sleeping with an expression most unfitting of a war-traumatized child. I liked it, but it probably would've been better being able to understand the dialogue. Actually, I was trying to figure out why the hell I even have this, considering nobody ever bothered to sub it and I obviously don't usually try to watch stuff where I literally can't understand the dialogue - apparently, Madhouse animated it. Yeah, that would do it, I'll give most anything they made a try.

Very curious to see if Republicans attempt to use Wisconsin's weird impeachment process(...es?) to try to cut any court 'activism' at the knees. If the court looks to kill gerrymandering and draw its own maps, I imagine they'll have a very vested interest in attempting literally anything to try to prevent it considering the sad state of Wisconsin's legislative maps, no matter how corrupt it might appear.

I finally played a handful of hours of Elden Ring. There was only one good hair option for my character, but one good hair option is better than no good hair options. The gameplay is...Dark Souls III crossed with Breath of the Wild, except way clunkier and jankier. Which is to say it feels decidedly mediocre and I think I got my fill already. Okay, now that that's forever out of the way, Bloodborne on PC, please and thank you. I would alternatively accept someone making a working PS4 emulator.

Confession: I did not listen to this when you posted it. Probably because I was not at all familiar with the film and had no idea what the heck you were talking about when you posted it, particularly seeing as that I am a Bowie-less person. This is so much better without the vocals, I am sorry that I didn't. Generally speaking, I usually remember the names of most musicians/artists when they're actually in my music library. When you're the one that manually puts in all the metadata for your own music library, you tend to remember the names better. I cannot guarantee that I'll remember anyone who is not in my music library, . It's well before my time, but at least "quintessential 80s pop" doesn't make me want to die like the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s did/do.

Not terribly familiar with his work...except that he was the main composer of 1987 film The Wings of Honneamise, whose oddball synth soundtrack I am fond of. Song you linked was great minus me predictably hating the vocals, whom I presume is this David Sylvian. I meant why did they execute him - obviously, that's way too kind, .

Would the world be a better place if: A. Fair officials and the police bust down doors to shoot the goat to death, or... B. The goat busts down fair officials' and the police's doors to shoot all of them to death? I think we all know the right answer here, .

Why'd they let him off so easy?

Pretty sure I've seen that "Satoshi Kon - Editing Space & Time" video, but I don't remember much about it except for some mention of Satoshi Kon implementing some very creative ways of constructing and editing scenes in Paprika, Millennium Actress, and Perfect Blue. Like I said, sometimes it's less about what you're entertaining me with and more about the entertainer...even when I should actually love what it is you're entertaining me with.

I'm not too interested in most of what they talk about either - between Hollywood trash, the endless B-movies, Star Wars, Star Trek, and a plethora of other things I am not interested in, I would say roughly 95% of what they talk about is of no interest to me at all. Thing is, I like them as characters/personalities. Truth be told, I have had pretty terrible anxiety about death basically ever since I could form conscious/deliberate thought (which was like...when I was 5), so the stuff Ask a Mortician talks about isn't really what I'd ideally be watching either, but...I like her too, so it just doesn't really matter. For me, the entertainer themselves is usually a lot more important than necessarily what they entertain me with.

My three main subscriptions these days are all long-form content people. RedLetterMedia... ...which most everyone here should be at least passingly familiar with for one reason or another, Ask a Mortician... ...who isn't really what her epithet implies, she just makes research videos (or relies on her own expertise being a mortuary director for many years and generally being on the in with such things) about any and all matters related to death. In more recent years, she seems to be covering death-related stories of note rather than anything "ask a mortician"-specific, and I am totally okay with that. ...hbomberguy... ...who is an insane person that makes extraordinarily long but very entertaining research videos about a very random collection of subjects. And then...well, Lindsay Ellis is dead, matthewmatosis is dead, the only amateur singer I've ever subscribed to on YouTube is dead, most everyone else is dead. So long and thinks for all the fish, people. If anyone has suggestions for other interesting long-form content, feel free to suggest - I don't really have the patience or attention span for short stuff. I can't guarantee that I'll like it, but I'll at least give it a try. (Editor's note: The people previously mentioned are not actually dead, just inactive on YouTube. In other words, they are dead.)