I spent the first two days of this week working from home, but had to come in to the office Wednesday to film participants at a seminar. Washington is strangely quiet due to the snow, but life moves on. Meanwhile, Finn has been off all week because Baltimore County couldn’t be bothered to plow the sidewalks in front of her school.
Our first week of teaching at UMBC got cancelled as well; the move-in/first day stuff got plowed under and pushed back everything. I don’t know if they’re going to extend the semester another week to make up for time lost, but we’re ready to roll when the doors open back up. I’ve got 13 students in total, two of whom I had last semester. This class is going to be heavy in Illustrator and information design, which is an exciting new avenue to explore.
After the game on Sunday, I found myself in front of the TV when the new X-Files came on, reconfiguring my syllabus for the third time. Much like the old X-Files, the new version is a retread of the same dumb plot point bullshit I remember:
Character introduction
“It’s a conspiracy”
Weird shit depicted in lousy CGI
“This conspiracy goes deeper than we thought”
All evidence gets blown up by guys in black suits
Roll credits.
Fuck the X-files.
HBO programming president Michael Lombardo confirmed to TVLine that he personally gave series creator David Milch the green light to resurrect the acclaimed yet painfully short-lived Western.
About cocksucking time.
So what are these “40 Unforgivable Plot Holes” and why is the Huffington Post ass-backward in their review? I blame it partly on the click-bait era. I also think that being a contrarian dick makes people feel intelligent. But those aren’t the reasons the review is horseshit. It’s horseshit because it really seems like the reviewer didn’t watch the movie at all.
This is an excellent takedown of both the criticism leveled at The Force Awakens and the click-baity way it was presented. I had my gripes with the film, but I think the author is spot-on in his rebuttal. (I didn’t link the original article because the important stuff is included).
The Japanese Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer Has Lots of New Footage. I’m getting excited about this.
Filed under “this sucks”: Grantland, ESPN’s sports/writing/pop culture site, is being shut down, effective immediately. I was always entertained and returned not only for the pop culture writing, but also for the football coverage (and I don’t “follow” football coverage the way most Americans do). Dumb move by ESPN.
Pizzolatto tried to shove a David Lynch movie into a crime novel and adapt it into an eight-episode prestige cable show that was often paced like a 22-episode network television show and performed like a screwed and chopped soap opera.
This. How unsatisfying the conclusion to this show was. Decisions made at the end made no sense, and characters who should have been smarter acted against their own self-interests. I hung in until the end, and it was a letdown.
Huh, I wouldn’t have chosen Chris Thile as the new host of a “A Prairie Home Companion,” but the selection certainly is inspired. He has the performer’s chops; I hope he can carry off the sketches, or hire someone who can.
The studio’s founders understand the fundamentals of animation and storytelling, even when they’re just moving brightly colored shapes around on a screen.
Pixar’s films put technology and storytelling hand-in-hand, via The Dissolve
How could this be bad? Awesome trivia about two of my favorite movies of all time. And, for the record, Beyond Thunderdome is also a fantastic movie. I can’t wait for this to be released.
Please, for the love of all that is holy, let this be good. Kick-ASS good.