This is sad news. I don’t watch the show on a regular schedule, but Mythbusters is always interesting, entertaining television. And Finn likes it too. I just read that co-hosts Kari, Grant and Tory have left the show after ten years. They’re talking about a reboot of the series, getting back to its roots with the two main hosts; I just hope they don’t fuck the whole thing up.
I tried to log in and watch the finale of True Detective last night, and my experience was what they described here: a spinning beach ball. Thanks for nothing, HBO.
I’ve been spending a lot of time working on print layouts lately, and when I’m at home I set up the iPad and stream movies as I work. First up, I’m catching up with the HBO series True Detective after seeing the pilot episode on a repeat. It’s really, really good. Whatever your opinion of Harrelson or McConaughey, they are both doing outstanding work in this show—one as a flawed family man and the other as a haunted, nihilistic addict. The last episode (4) ended with a 6-minute tracking shot that rivals anything Scorsese or Cuaron have done for its complexity and fluidity, and I was white-knuckling the edges of my iPad without realizing it before it was over.
I used to watch Justified in its first season, but when our schedules and TVs got scrambled, I fell off and got behind. I’ve been catching up now that we have Amazon Prime, and I remember why I liked the show. The second season picked up all kinds of awards, and rightfully so; the characters are rich and the writing is solid.
I’ve also been watching selected episodes of The Walking Dead to see if it’s something worth picking up, and while it’s not as compelling as True Detective, it’s not bad. I’ve read reviews that complain about characters continually making poor decisions, and from what I’ve seen it’s pretty true, but I like some of the leads and I’ll keep sampling it here and there.
Amazon also has a couple of pilots available to sample, the first of which I watched was Bosch, based on a Michael Connolly character. It’s got Titus Welliver, another Deadwood alumnus, as the lead, a strong storyline, and good writing. I can’t say the same for The After, which comes off as a weak ripoff of LOST with annoying characters and more tropes than I care to admit.
…Felt more like three days. With preparation for the parade party on Wednesday, my first vacation day felt more like a triathlon, and there’s absolutely nothing interesting to report about that. Thursday was a great day with friends and food and parade and fun. This year we had the largest turnout yet, around 100 people, give or take a score of kids. The weather was hot and steamy as usual, and with all of the water toys and sprinkler and mister set up, the side yard was a bog by the end of the day. My homebrew went over well, even though the IPA was foaming, and my plan to scale food offerings back to hot dogs meant I spent less time at the grill and more time catching up with friends.
After the parade, and as the crowd thinned out, everybody pitched in and broke down the tents, washed dishes, and generally cleaned up with us, which was VERY appreciated; by about 6PM I was absolutely spent. We rallied long enough to make it to the front yard where a tremendous privately funded fireworks collection was being lit off across the street, which meant we didn’t feel obligated to stagger down to the high school for the official community display.
Friday was all about recovery and rest. We farted around the house and cleaned up a little bit, and crashed the neighbors’ pool, but mainly napped and puttered. That evening we’d been invited to a neighborhood happy hour, so I made some guacamole to bring, packed up some leftover bottles of beer, and we walked a few blocks over to the party. The hosts were wonderful, we met a lot of new people, and Finn had a ball with a gaggle of kids her age. When it got too dark to see other faces clearly, my neighbor and I walked the girls home—under constant threat of attack by werewolves. I think we were all asleep by 10:30.
Saturday Aunt Renie was in town with her friend Wendy, so we got ourselves purtied up and drove in to town to meet them at Clementine, where we caught up, drank Bloodys, and ate like royalty. The ladies followed us back home to the A/C where we hung out and relaxed, talked, and played games with Finn. All too quickly they had to leave for a lacrosse game, so we said goodbye and tried to figure out what to do with the rest of our day. The consensus was fooling around, giggling, looking at baby pictures on my phone, and not moving from the couch.
Sunday the girls were up and out quickly to meet with some friends on vacation in Virginia, while I stayed home to catch up on some projects. What I thought would take a few hours consumed most of the day, but luckily I was inside in the A/C and there were leftover cupcakes and beer.
I had a total of five days off, but as with all vacation time, it slips through my fingers too easily. I did get to spend a lot of quality time with my girls, which makes me happy, but I’d love to have another couple to recover more.
Here’s a great little article about Old School Dungeons & Dragons and the changes made after it was bought out by Wizards of the Coast.
Child psychologist Donald Winncott describes the pure play of youth, where an unboundedness is the required work of a healthy developing mind, and continues to be an vital part of being an authentic self into adulthood. Is this was role-playing is about? Authenticity? And is someone supposed to find authenticity imagining they are, say, a magic-user in search of arcane lore?
RIP, Roger Ebert. Jezebel sums up his Twenty Best Reviews, and it’s a fair measure of the man. Godspeed.
This has been making the rounds, but it’s definitely worth a link: a transcript of the Raiders of the Lost Ark story conference. Lucas, Spielberg, and Kasdan at their finest.
In Small Things That Give Me Hope For Humanity news, The house from My Neighbor Totoro does in fact, exist, and you can tour it.