ThaOGDreamWeaver

Industry note:

I understood that reference... 😊 thoughts:

A Tribe Called Quest - Can I Kick It?

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - I Hate Myself For Loving You

Goldfrapp - Strict Machine

Me either. I have people to do that for me. ...this is the understatement of the decade... Yup. Also, it's worth looking at each movie in its own right, not just because actor X is or isn't in it. I mean, "Keanu Reeves, action hero" still has the inner 90s' me going "...whoa...", but after Speed, that happened, and now we have Ted Logan as a franchise-making dark avenger dude. I can't imagine why or how Cage maintains his phenomenal work rate - or how stir crazy he must have been going in this strike. But he's clearly got to that Bob De Niro era in an actor's life where they've gone "screw it, let's do everything". Cage is just gutted he missed out to Bob on that Stardust role...

Thoughts:

This sorta exists in the UK, though from a thoroughly evil source. Sky's bundling integrates P+ and Netflix free on certain packages, and while D+ and Amazon need separate subscriptions, all their content becomes searchable from the same single menu structure. So I get the feeling the cable carriage fees that are slowly dying out for major US channels (apart from the Not-News-because-nobody-sane-would-believe-us-honest-guv Channel, unfortunately) might be replaced with content access fees for the streaming apps.

Picard S3 felt a little more disjointed plotwise than S1 or S2, but by the Great Bird Of The Galaxy, does it deliver on fanservice and pure joy moments... As a sendoff for Picard - and just maybe the start of a Legacy franchise - maybe not perfect, but damn if it's not entertaining. That said, I still haven't felt the need for Paramount beyond the end of my discounted trial. What else have they got that's worth it? I still also strongly feel, given the current market conditions, that there will come a shakeout of all the streaming platforms with at least one or two biting the dust. Paramount+ and Discovery+ seem the most vulnerable. Disney+ has a great content lineup but also very grumpy shareholders (and dopey, and sleepy, and...)

Look, they're under 40, I consider them basically teens and immature. Grrr. Youths! *shakes walking stick and accidentally fries passing cyclist with a lightning bolt* ...oops. Sorry. My bad. I tried watching it, but - despite Maisie being cool as usual - didn't grab me either by the feels for the characters, or by the throat with fear, and gave up after about half an hour. Felt like it wasn't quite sure either in plot or direction what it wanted to be. If it feels like a bit of a mess, the production history is making me cringe in pain and want to send chocolates to the cast and crew in solidarity. Because sweet Freya in Asgard, this doesn't sound like a fun gig. And given Fox had started to lose interest in the franchise after Apocalypse, it had no serious budget, promo or management backing to play with. Per Wikipedia: Fox wanted the book made into a YA Stranger Things-y flick, but then flipped it into a horror movie when IT (2017) came out. Executives wanting to redo movies based on the zeitgeist is a Bad Thing, BTW, and is why management need to give them shock collars if they send more than five notes a day. There then followed two years in Post-Prod hell - a much rarer and more terrifying punishment than Development Hell, with reshoots, plot changes and even whole new characters being mooted and then dropped. After the acquisition, Disney put back some of the horror and stripped out some of the X-references, and it tested... okay, but no reshoots or additional scenes were filmed, even the usual fix-up pickups. Partly for budget, but mainly because the cast had aged three years since the main shoot. Also, a lot of the final cut had to be done by a lone editor as the director (Josh Boone) was already off making The Stand. As if that wasn't enough, the release date was March 2020, right at the start of COVID, so it went DTV, with a contractually-required cinematic limited release in October. And then the critics got at it - eventually, as Disney refused to provide screeners. And then came the neckbeards... Let's hope - given Amazon were prepared to give The Boys the fairly terrifying level of creative freedom they were allowed - Gen V fares better. From your enthused noises, it certainly seems to be - will be tuning in later this weekend...

Lori Chacko ft Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark - Once Bitten, Twice Shy

I'd been saving this one too... I guess they wanted to have something like a Christmas single for the best time of the year? Muse - You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween

Thoughts...

Decloaking something re Filoni and Canon... So only the films - and later the TV series - are officially Beard-Blessed Canon. Anything else isn't - but is a really, really nice toybox for Filoni to pull stuff out of and use. And he already has...

Small notes on m'learned coll's notes:

And for us other hamsters over here...🐹

David McCallum - The Edge

I liked STO... until it exploded my old NVIDIA card, but even with all the new content, much deeper involvement from Paramount, and a huge number of guest shot voices (Wheaaaattooooooonnnn....), the very P2W structure would not please me. Also: no Apple client. Which is odd, because everyone knows all spacecraft are Mac-compatible, even alien ones.

Even as a Brit, that's a little too much school dinner for me. For something a tiny bit lighter, get hold of: 8 large figs, as gorgeously and fulminously ripe as you can... okay, okay, no Nigella'ing. In fact, this'll perk up any you find this time of year. 2 tbsp butter, melted 2 tbsp honey, preferably with a strong herbal or orange aroma 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice (Sicilian or other big damn sweetish lemon if you can get one) 2 tbsp soft brown/ Muscovado sugar 1 tbsp cinnamon fresh nutmeg for grating (to taste) 10 amaretti biscuits Small tub of mascarpone (about 4oz/125g) 2oz/50g heavy cream (Optional) 2tbsp marsala or dark rum Zest of the lemon from earlier 1. Split the figs in half, or quartered if not particularly ripe. Place in a baking dish - try and find one that they fit quite tightly when packed in, in a single layer. 2. Mix butter, honey and lemon juice, and drizzle evenly over the figs. Dip any pieces in the runoff that don't look well coated. 3. Break down two of the amaretti into large crumbs, in a pestle and mortar if you need to. 4. Mix crumbs, sugar and spices and scatter evenly over the figs. 5. Bake at 200ºC / Gas 6 for 20 minutes. (No, you cannot use the damn air fryer.) 6. Gently remove figs from the syrup in the tin and divide between either four (dessert) or two (date night) portions. 7. Add booze to syrup if using, then reserve about 2 tbsp. Drizzle the rest generously over figs. 8. Once cooled enough to touch, mix reserved syrup and cream into mascarpone, grate over lemon zest, and beat to soft peaks. If you overwhip by accident (always a problem around me...) add a touch more cream to bring it back. 9. Place generous pile of mascarpone next to figs, and serve with remaining biscuits on the side. 10. Mangiamo.

Timey-wimey response... (Plus small edit below) Thing I also forgot to mention...

Regenerating this thread for the new Anniversary Specials trailer:

I've always thought of The Tower in storytelling terms. It's an ending card - like the World (100% victory), 10s of Coins or Cups (Disney happy ending), Death (neutral and punctual) or 10 of Swords (...nasty). But instead, it's the Michael Bay ending - where not only is something in your life going to end at the right time, it's also going to violently explode for no valid plot reason. Sure, you'll be able to build something better and more stable. That's not really a comfort during the whole running away bit. Unless you were the one who chose to light the fuse... interested to know what you thought on that one. GURPS? Now there's a name I've not heard in a long time... a looong time. I think I might still have a copy of the infamous Cyberpunk sourcebook kicking around somewhere, which I only bought to find out why the FBI wanted it stopped. Then went straight round to the bookshop and bought a whole bunch of Gibsons. Smash the system, choombatta! And my favourite RPG back in the day was... MERP. As a stylish Rohirrim Ranger most of the time.

On m'learned coll's points..

Currently... tarot reading. (Bet you didn't see that coming.) Beyond that I'm working and studying a lot - just finishing up an advanced business course, and starting basic Italian - and have a house to run on top'o'that. But one of these days I'd love to try learning guitar again. Screwed my left hand badly falling off a wave on a dodgy foam surfboard when I was younger, but maybe with some training it'd at least let me crank out a lazy G-A-D strum cameo.

On to this week's adventure, and...