I really need to prune the wishlist items that go on 90% sale and still don’t get purchased…
I've lived in New York State my entire life. And I remember that there was a point where a "White Christmas" wasn't a guarantee, but was a realistic possibility.
Anyway, it's been 50 degrees all week and we haven't had a White Christmas in 12 years. Seems fine!
Also, I was riding the train home tonight and was sad, because I'd gotten tired of all the games on my Switch (God bless it, I just cannot do JRPGs). And as I drove home from the station, I was thinking to myself "Crap. Well, guess I need to look into buying a new game."
And then I got home, and was reminded that, not entirely unlike my Steam wishlist, I have at least 7-12 unread comic trades that have been sitting on my bookcase for MONTHS, and an equal number of audiobooks I haven't finished.
I am chastened, but now at least I have a distraction.
I've lived in New York State my entire life. And I remember that there was a point where a "White Christmas" wasn't a guarantee, but was a realistic possibility.
Anyway, it's been 50 degrees all week and we haven't had a White Christmas in 12 years. Seems fine!
I'm 50, I lived in New Jersey for 13 years and in New York the other 37. and don't remember many white Christmases. Maybe 5?
Oh, chances were never good...
But there was a chance. And it wasn't 50.
I saw a YouTube mashup of Warhammer 40K and Blackadder Goes Forth and I can't remember the last time I encountered a more perfect pop culture pairing.
I saw a YouTube mashup of Warhammer 40K and Blackadder Goes Forth and I can't remember the last time I encountered a more perfect pop culture pairing.
And you're not gonna share it with us? For shame.
This one?
That's the one.
There is about 14.3 times more livestock biomass than wild mammals on our planet. There is 1.6 times more livestock biomass than human.
(Source)
2024 = 2³+3³+4³+5³+6³+7³+8³+9³
2024 = 2³+3³+4³+5³+6³+7³+8³+9³
Which means
2025 = 1³+2³+3³+4³+5³+6³+7³+8³+9³
BadKen wrote:2024 = 2³+3³+4³+5³+6³+7³+8³+9³
Which means
2025 = 1³+2³+3³+4³+5³+6³+7³+8³+9³
Also:
2025 = 452
45 = 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9
I hadn’t noticed before now how square Jack Black’s head is. Especially with the beard.
Like, I know game shows are dumb. I know they're supposed to be dumb. And I know I shouldn't care, since I don't even watch them.
But my God, I looked at the TV listings tonight and these shows are So Goddamn Dumb. "We Are Family" looks just mind-blowingly stupid.
It's like we're not smart enough to do the far better British light entertainment/panel shows.
That said, The $100,000 Pyramid still gets a pass.
But my God, I looked at the TV listings tonight and these shows are So Goddamn Dumb. "We Are Family" looks just mind-blowingly stupid.
Wikipedia doesn't even say what the show is about.
So, I didn't much like Shakespeare as a teen.
Now, it's like, I get it.
I think I need to give Miyazaki's stuff another try, because it just didn't hit me when I was 16-24, for whatever reason, and I have a distinct sense that I will find it 50,000x better now.
Getting older definitely made me appreciate some stuff differently, but nothing changed that more than having kids did. I'm not saying anyone *has* to have kids to appreciate some stuff properly, one can experience the necessary personal growth just fine without having them, but that's what did it for me.
It didn't help that my school said here are the three Shakespeare things you will read for every english class for the next four years. They then failed to explain why these works were special. I love reading but to this day dislike Shakespeare due to the way I was forced to read it rather than the stories themselves.
Prederick, try Spirited Away for your first one. An awesome movie.
Shakespeare is way more fun if you get to do parts of the plays in class, and have a good grounding in the language as it was used them. The jokes and cuts really pop, and the meter and rhyming are genius level. But seeing the plays done well, perhaps before trying to read them, is essential. Might even be more important than reading them, tbh.
Here's an example of Shakespeare well done for modern audiences, yet retaining the original language. It's from the 2019 PBS Great Performances film of NYC's Shakespeare in the Park "Much Ado About Nothing". It's a great example of the emotion and earthy interactions Shakespeare conjures between his characters, with grace and elegance masking true animosity as well as ego on the part of both.
The whole play is available here (Part 1 linked) on DailyMotion:
A lot of people like Spirited Away, and it's probably one of the better ones, but I've always been a Princess Mononoke man myself.
First one I watched was Howl's Moving Castle. Weird, but cool.
Totoro for me.
The fact that kids are made to read Shakespeare is a crime. His plays were made to be experienced live. Kids would get so much more out of the plays if they watched, for example, a Branagh Shakespeare film. Much of Shakespeare’s genius hits best when heard.
Seeing a live play or even a movie are the way to go with Shakespeare. I tend to find the dialogue is very hard to follow at first but then you get tuned in and it all starts to make sense.
Actually, does anyone know if Andrew Scott's version of Hamlet is available online anywhere/
From what I was able to find in some brief searching, it was never released after the BBC showed it.
I recommend Miyazaki's Nausica Valley of the Wind
And there is nothing better than rediscovering Shakespeare as an adult. This is especially so if you get a chance to perform it or see it live locally.
-Richard the 3rd is brutal as is Titus Andronicus (a good gut punch if there ever is such a thing)
-Much Ado and Midsummer are a lot of fun
-Macbeth is great but it is one that everyone wants to do their "take" on and mess with it unnecessarily
-For Hamlet I would just pick a character or scene and read it. The players scene is amazing. Also Leartes has great stuff. Also realize that "To be or Not to be" is about questioning whether you want to exist (commit suicide). People often mock it or say it grandiosely when it is anything but that and deserves better.
-Merchant of Venice is a thought piece. The likeable oppressors are the hero and the unlikeable oppressed is the villain (also note that my Shakespearean monologue is Shylock)
-Tempest is beautifully written. Ariel is such an amazing character. Caliban is a dream role for me.
Ooh! Also totally concur that you should find your local Shakespeare in the park performances. I don't know why but perhaps it just adds to the magic listening to Shakespeare out in the open! They are usually free (but accept donations) and are well attended enough to get the benefit of a crowd (~100), but not 1000's of people forcing you to sit in the nose bleed section.
I'll stop there before I get massively long winded 
Some movie versions of these I particularly enjoy:
Richard III (1995) starring Ian McKellen
Haven't seen a Titus Andronicus movie (though I'm sure there are one or two out there)
Branagh's Much Ado is sensational, except for one eensy teensy nasty flaw. That would be Ted Theodore Logan.
Julie Taymor's 2014 A Midsummer Night's Dream is a filmed theater production.
I really really like Justin Kurzel's Macbeth starring Fassbender.
Critics loved it, but I really really didn't like Joel Coen's abstract Tragedy of Macbeth with his wife (not really nepo, McDormand is a wonderful actor) and Denzel.
It is majorly abridged, but I like Zefferelli's Hamlet, starring (gasp) Mel Gibson. It's hard to pick a bad Hamlet movie.
I love Al Pacino's Merchant of Venice, the 2004 movie directed by Michael Radford.
I haven't watched any filmed versions of The Tempest (except that it is cited as an influence of Alex Garland's Ex Machina)
To all of those, I would add Taming of the Shrew, which has many fine filmed versions, faithful and adaptation, but my favorite is 10 Things I Hate About You.
I had the exact same experience with having Shakespeare shoved down my throat, poorly, in middle and high schools and assuming that I hated his work.
But since then I have seen this discourse come around a few times, so I knew I should probably give him another shot in adulthood.
And then a while back a friend gifted us a subscription to the National Theatre's online streaming service and we've watched a number of Shakespeare adaptations from them since, and I'll be damned if they aren't all worth watching. Their version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, in particular, was fantastic and weird and the cast was wonderful.
If you like this kind of thing and you've not seen it, genuinely drop what you're doing and watch this:
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