Raithe

Well someone had to do it...

Bay didn't ruin your childhood memories of Transformers, so much as he sidles up against them, stuck his hand in the pocket and molested them somewhat.

Deadly Class. Caught the pilot episode out of curiosity - a disillusioned homeless teen gets recruited into an elite private academy, where top crime families send their successors to become refined killers and masterminds. All set against the backdrop of the 80's. The social cliques being the criminal succesor kids and legacies, the "preps" - the kids of corrupt FBI / CIA agents, and the rest. Kind of quirky, and looks like it might turn interesting. I think I'll follow the next few episodes to see if it develops into somethign worthwhile.

An apparition appears in your room, alongside a more successful looking doppelganger of yourself... Apparition: "and THIS is what you would be!" Doppelganger: "Oh my god! Spare me these twisted visions, specter! I've learned my lesson!" (both vanish) You: "... Hey.. WTF?!"

To be fair, I think my Harley Davidson jacket has that many zippers on it, and that's from the early 2000's....

Condolences Hurl. When you can make those memories personal, they'll always last. I've been feeling fairly out of sorts, not sure if it was the A/C on the flight back, but I picked up the ticklish throat that's turned into a full blown mucus cough, which induces headaches and terrible sleep. Thinking I'll end up having a quiet New Year's eve ignoring most things and possibly reading while avoiding hacking a lung up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fMEaj7kkDA

OpenCulture - Ayn Rand helped the FBI identify It's a Wonderful Life as communist propaganda

Caught Ocean's 8 on the plane. Hm, okay, the acting is good, the chemistry between Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchet, Anne Hathaway, and the rest generally work, it's all slick and smooth, and it does have a nice bit of twist towards the end. But something seemed missing, there just weren't enough playful twists in the process, it was quite straightforward right up until the end. It's like it has all the ingredients there, but something failed to rise in the oven. I would watch it again, but more as a lazy evening, on tv kind of way.

I think it's a perspective thing in my mind. The romance that occurs is never central to the plot of the story, it just happens to be a natural aspect of character evolution and interaction. To me, a a romance series , the romance and relationship is first and foremost, and everything else hangs off that. When it's a sidenote, when it's part of character growth that just happens alongside the actual plot and story.. That's not a romance series.

Ilona Andrews can be enjoyable - They started off their Kate Daniels series with no intention of it being considered "romance" , although as is the nature of any long-running series of books the relationships between characters can become plot elements. What's kind of amusing is that because the books would keep getting put in the romance section of book stores before "Urban Fantasy" got its own section, they ended up writing a few romance urban fantasy stories just because people thought they already wrote them. You might like to try Simon R Green. He's done both a fantasy world style urban fantasy in his Hawke & Fisher, while his Nightside is very much that otherworldly realm in the center of London where fantasy and reality share renting space and the sun never shines. Jonathan Moeller's Cloak Games is kind of the Dresden Files meets Shadowrun, set in a near future earth where Elves invaded from another Dimension and are firmly in control. The story of one woman trained to be a covert thief / agent for a manipulative Elven High Mage. Depending on how much pulp you like, (and swerves into sci-fi), check out Michael Todd. And if you like both humor and spice, check out Elliot Kay's Good Intentions trilogy - The guy just finished high school, starting college..and ends up bound to an Angel and a Succubus at the same time, finding out that life is a whole lot more complicated then he ever realised.

Not strictly a celebrity as such... Richard Overton, USA's oldest man and WW2 vet dies at 112