ThaOGDreamWeaver

I’m kind of the opposite. I grew up in a very old city (at least 450AD as a known settlement, with evidence of large scale habitation in the area well before that). I’m comfortable around old stone, trees, grass, open space: canyons of ultramodern, clinical buildings make me nervous. You build spaces for people, people will live in it. You make spaces to herd people…

On the bonkers Star Wars Theory “no bricks or screws in space” thing that’s been roundly mocked on The Interwebs… …kinda missing the point. As one of my assorted Twitter folks put it: “[A New Hope] gave us a setting that felt established and real, because people had evidently been living in it. We saw the grimy underside of SF.” In Andor, we see both shine and grime, and it’s very much by design. The Empire is all surface gloss, steel, chrome, cold clinical maddening (and occasionally electrified) order, until you get down to Coruscant’s grimy underbelly. Aldhani is grass, natural stone, forests, curved valleys, plus one sodding great concrete dam dropped in the middle of it, jarring, out of place. Ferrix is brick, stone, rust, mud, old recycled tech, warm tones, down-to-earth, imperfect… human. The contrast between these settings sets the tone for the people who live and work there and their characters.

Utah Saints x Kate Bush - Something Good

Opus III - It's A Fine Day

Together - Hardcore Uproar 12" Mix

Mark Governor - Stadium Rave (aka Jellyfish Jam from Spongebob)

Mark Summers - Summer's Magic (Unit Mix)

Normally, boardroom shenanigans don't necessarily affect the kind of content us peons enjoy. However, in, this case it may well do, if you're a D+ subscriber. Longtime CEO Bob Iger has been recalled to his role and his handpicked replacement Bob Chapek promptly, dismissively iced. For people whose companies are share-listed, many industry prognosticators will set what they think you'll earn, as a multiple of the number of shares in circulation. It's based on what you've been telling the market, plus wider market analysis, so you'd better hit it. Q3 was expected to grow by around half to 56¢ per share and $21bn in revenue, compared to Q3 2021. They missed. For stonks fanciers, that is bad news. While the revenue wasn't that short - $20bn - the cleared earnings total was only 30¢ per share, due to a loss of $1.47bn across all their streaming platforms (D+, ESPN+, Hulu), originating from content and marketing spending. That wiped 13% off DISN stock - or about $24bn in value. Stonks people not happy, and out for blood. They got it. That was the nail in Chapek's coffin, but the mishandling of the Don't Say Gay affair, the public spat with Johannson, a general dislike for Whollyodd schmoozing, and a fairly blunt management style had pretty much put him there. Iger now has two jobs - get back in and turn around those losses, and fend off a bunch of notorious activist investors hungry for profits, even if it means breaking the company up. Key things that may happen as a result: Changes or cutbacks at D+. They've got a vast library now, they can afford to dial down the acquisition spending for a bit, and they've racked up impressive subscriber numbers. D+ are also adding an ad-supported tier like Netflix. Cutbacks generally. Anything underperforming is likely to get sold if someone thinks it's worth it, sidelined or redlined if not. Buy out Hulu completely from Comcast, and deepen the content partnership with FX. Sell off ESPN. Chapek held off doing another Star Wars tentpole movie, favouring Obi-Wan and Andor to drive people to D+. Mando S3 is in the can and hopefully S2 of Andor is safe, but Chapek had already cut it back from 5 seasons. It's possible this is why Patti Jenkins dragged her heels on the Rogue Squadron development.

So that was, indeed, pretty damn special. Some surprises: welcome ones, to be sure, and quite a few things left unresolved. All in all, that one slightly saggy plot device aside, the only thing I'm narked about in this episode is that we've got about two years to wait till the next one. And pray to the Makers that the changeover at Disney doesn't get a big, expensive, critically acclaimed but under-audienced show redlined, or D+ doesn't bite it and get merged with some other platform I can't get at in the UK. But for now... it's very rare that a series leaves you feeling anything, let alone... that damn good.

Thoughts thereon:

Nylon Admirals - In A World…

On this day, 44 years ago, one of the most (in)famous entries to the scifi canon dropped out of hyperspace... and then vanished again, its memory carried on only through word of mouth and the most dedicated of nerd archivists. It had very little to do with Lucas, and was instead created by CBS's Saturday night variety teams, as a thinly-veiled Thanksgiving event. It also includes musical segments and "comedy", including guest stars like Bea Arthur and Harvey Korman. It is, for the most part, exactly as bad as it sounds. According to Wikipedia, Carrie demanded one of the very few remaining official copies in exchange for recording DVD commentaries, so that she could show it at parties. (Especially when she wanted people to leave). But there are a few gems in this trash compactor of a show: Carrie Fisher sings! The song's not great, but Space Mom had pipes. Pretty decent track from Jefferson Starship The Tale Of The Faithful Wookie: a Nelvana-made cartoon short about Chewie trying to find a cure for Han, who's contracted a deadly virus, and includes the very first canon appearance of everyone's favourite bounty hunter scum. (If you don't fancy suffering through the whole thing to get to that, this is the only part of the Special released "officially", on D+.)

Jefferson Starship - Light The Sky On Fire Jefferson Starship - Hyperdrive

Star Wars - Life Day Lofi Happy Life Day!

The Bangles - Walk Like An Egyptian https://theconversation.com/why-the-discovery-of-cleopatras-tomb-would-rewrite-history-194481

/em holdbattorch

Prepare for a hail of bullets.

Been reading tributes from his assorted cast members - Hamill, Tara and Grey in particular… plus Lynda Carter and others from around the nerd world. But I’d like to just mention that: a) he was genuinely a good bloke b) he enjoyed the #!?@ out of being Batman.

I still don't get why they couldn't build it on one of those islands. Alcatraz had all of those benefits without actually needing to block out and pump out several million metric tonnes of water to put it below the surface. Hell, if you want to build an island, that's an awful lot easier. On with the bulletage: More fun with architecture. Series designer Luke Hull has a bit of a tease over here. There were seven prison blocks. Yep, he's OCD. What they were making is significant, and may be revealed... later. It might even pay off this series. There's even tie-in merch.

Seems so. There are five Raft type structures visible in this screenshot (though, given the OCD nature of architects, would bet there's actually seven). BTW. Why, in the name of the Great Bird Of The Galaxy, do Imps insist on building their fancy stuff underwater? Massive unnecessary engineering challenges, just for Rule Of Cool false perception of security. Industrial park in Reading / Scranton / Leopardstown / De Kalb would have been perfectly fine. And, to be honest, feel more or less the same. Haven't caught up with this week's show yet, but for those of you still braving the hellscape of Twitter, there is nothin' but love out there for Andy Serkis. Oh, and for architecture nerds / RPG folks / etc, here's the overhead plan.

Still wondering what's happening with Anansi Boys. Neil said in June that primary shoots and grading were done - but that post-production was going to take until June 2023... ...the hell is that boy cooking up? I guess Amazon aren't averse to major league SFX budgets these days, but it's only six standard-length episodes.