By Roy Mathur, on 2023-04-04, at 23:19:02--00:20:23 BST, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show, Listen
I suffered from a spot of gut grief today, took painkillers, and swooned a bit, but luckily Google Calendar reminded me what day it was. Since I had show notes prepared and it was also local election day here in the UK, I thought it doubly appropriate to tape a pod today.
Recorded with an SM7B.
As I have said until I'm blue in the face, podcasts thrive of interaction, so get in touch.
I had this on the night stand, as more of a talisman than anything else, and was not fully intending to re-re-re-etc.-read it. Then a few days ago random happenstance found me four chapters in.
I had completely forgotten the bit near the beginning with the seance. God, imagine the horror of meeting disappointed ancestors? It's something I didn't think much about until this re-reading. Gag Halfrunt seems to have more lines than I remember too, and wait, he ordered the Earth blown up? He's a mental health professional, so I shouldn't entirely be surprised. More surprising is that Arthur eventually does eventually get decent cup of tea from the Nutri-Matic Drinks Synthesiser.
It's also struck me (probably for the Nth time) about how depressing the books are. While they are funny, they are the very opposite of joie de vivre. Except for Ford Prefect's crazy devil-may-care attitude/blackly comic nihilism, which I'm not sure counts.
In the 80s I accidentally bought the audio book versions, issued on two twin cassette tapes, of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe read by Stephen Moore. Thinking it was the radio series, I was initially disappointed, though I enjoyed the tapes a few times before setting them aside.
They have now long gone and I have no ambitions to reacquire them. I only mention this in passing for those who may be surprised at how many times and by how many different people have narrated; Douglas Adams, Martin Freeman, and possibly others?
This was another bloated movie I had to pause halfway through for a nap before continuing.
The third movie in the series now has three Hank Pym tech based superheroes; the Ant family; consisting of Ant-Man, the Wasp, and Cassie with her on purple Pym suit. This time they are sucked into the quantum realm thanks to a device invented by Cassie where they meet Micronauts rebelling against Kang the Conqueror exiled there by alternate Kangs.
It is very sci-fi, introduces the Micronaut universe (based on the Japanese toys and later cross-promoted through Marvel comics), including Jentorra played by Katy O'Brian who plays devious Imperial Elia Kane in the Mandalorian.
Jonathon Majors is a damned excellent Kang, and moreso because I can actually hear what he is saying, unlike his dialogue delivery in Lovecraft Country. M.O.D.O.K (Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing) was at least a tiny bit sinister in the comics as George Tarleton, but retconned as Darren Cross, he is rubbish and sad. The miniature world is gloriously alien. The FX are great, the story isn't bad, but the dialogue and the storytelling are lacklustre.
Drink the ooze!
Here we go again. The original meta slasher is as clever and gory as the rest of the series. This time, the first Ghostface Billy Loomis's daughter is a suspect in a resurgence of killings in New York City, where she, her sister, and a couple of other survivors from the Scream (2022) reboot have tried to leave behind the events in Woodsboro as they attend university.
While Neve Campbell does not reprise her role as the main protagonist of the first movie, Sidney Prescott, Courtney Cox's Gale Weathers, my favourite character, is back. Hayden Panettiere as Kirby Reed from Scream 4 is also in it and I like most things she's in.
I found the final big reveal flat and acted unconvincingly, and I wish they'd stab this franchise in the face once and for all.
Though the film is average and didn't get a properly twisted ending it deserved, it has a few nice touches of demonic and occult horror.
China's Tencent's produced series has been out and available on YouTube, beating Damon Lindeloft D.B. Weisse's upcoming show on Netflix (now that Lindeloft is free to do other things after his potential Star Wars film came to an end). There's also an anime in the works.
The show about what happens after an unauthorised response to an alien signal that is intercepted by a Chinese SETI programme.
I have not read the very well received book, but I will say that my mind was initially blown by the thought experiment explaining why physics could be more like religion than science. Later, however, it also occurred to me, as an ex-scientist, that of course our understanding of the universe radically changes each time a paradigm is breached, but that doesn't negate the value of the iterative hypothesis/experimentation process. If we didn't do that, we'd stagnate.
I hated the eye-searing Tencent watermark at the top right (DOG; Digital Onscreen Graphic), the insane number of YouTube ads, and also Tencent's hardcoded ads.
The sound design was rubbish. Sometimes there was far too much harsh ambient sound in the mix, giving the impression of a single mic and one audio take. It often distracted from the dialogue. For god sake, sound people, please record dialogue and ambient sound separately, then mix them in post.
The subtitles for the script is only translated rather than transcribed properly for English, making it hard to understand cultural nuances.
The acting was average, apart from the nerdy weird protagonist, applied physicist/nanotechnologist Wang Miao (Zhang Luyi), who is excellent. Though how he is actually married with a kid? How the hell does that work? This man is more dysfunctional than I am. This creepy chap spends most of his time hiding in a dark room and stalking another scientist with his 1988 Leica M2. The cop character, Shi Qiang (Yu Hewei), was unbelievably annoying. I can't believe he talks to the general like that.
The FX were average and very computery, though I enjoyed a few scenes with flying pool balls.
The cinematography was occasionally beautiful. For example, that glorious saturated shot of the subatomic accelerator.
The adaptation seemed like a combination of Arrival and Godzilla (there's even a M.O.N.A.R.C.H.), and probably a lot of other screen sci-fi too.
After epsiode three I was out, mainly because of the unceasing onslaught of ads, rather than any of my other criticisms. I'll give the Lindeloff/Weiss show a try when it is out soon.
If the season three finale is the final finale, and the show isn't renewed, then I'm okay with the way it ended.
Moff Gideon is melted, Mandalore is back in the hands of the Mandalorians, Grogu is officially a Mandalorian apprentice of Din. The two settle into a comfortable cabin on Nevarro as unofficial freelance Imperial Remnant bounty hunters.
The finale! It is done.
The Alice Krige Borg cube jammed into Jupiter is blown up by our Next Gen chaps, and Picard, the old duffer, can bugger off back to his lovely vineyard and his hot Romulan girlfriend, secure in the knowledge that the universe and his friends, including Data, are safe, and he has a son following in his footsteps; even to the point of tangling with Q. You lucky, lucky git, Picard, and farewell.
Pod 385 from 2021 was the last time I updated you about my consumption of this gory Shudder reboot. Originating with George A. Romero and Stephen King's first and second films, and later films and TV shows by others, it is inspired by 50s horror and mystery comics, like EC (Entertaining Comics).
I have since watched the first two seasons, and if you are nostalgic for golden oldie-style thrills, then this is for you. There is a third season out too, but for now I'm squirrelling further viewing away for a rainy day.
WoTC sent Pinkertons (yes, the same union busting heavies from the westerns) to harass Magic the Gathering fan who was inadvertently sent unreleased material. The YouTuber oldschoolmtg (Dan Cannon) said they were aggressive and made his wife cry. According to Gizmodo this isn't the only time WoTC have used the nefarious agency. The current Director Security Risk Management of parent company Hasbro, Robin M. Klimek, was the former Director of Supply Chain Security Practice at Pinkerton; one hand washing the other, etc.
I weaned myself off trading cards back in the 1970s, after getting stung by Hammer Horror chewing gum cards effect on my pocket money. I've hated trading cards ever since. You'd have thought it enough that WoTC made enough money fleecing their customers, but no. What really irks me is such hypocrisy from a company that purports itself as so fan friendly. It makes it hard to continue to like anything WoTC makes, which puts us DnD fans in an unfortunate position, but it shouldn't surprise us after their licensing debacle (474 and 476).
Historian William Dalrymple and Anita Anand, explore the excesses of various empires throughout history in this podcast.
If you like Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, and also shows like Blake's 7, as I do, you'll know what a central role imperialism, colonial exploitation, repression, and historical revisionism play in their storylines. Think of the Empire podcast as a primer.
Paranoid thriller in which top doc gets sucked into complex drug dealing scam.
Shockingly disgustingly gory in places, I found it an okay potboiler that could have done with a much bigger budget. It plays like a Robin Cook medical conspiracy on a shoestring.
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