Tonight we kick off Episode 15 of the weekly Guest Post series: Medium Cool with BGinCHI.
In case you missed the introduction to the series: Culture as a Hedge Against this Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We’re Living In
You can find the whole series here: Medium Cool with BGinCHI
Tonight’s Topic: Looking Ahead
We have a few things lined up for June. We’ll be talking about the second book in TaMara’s TJ Wilde series, which just came out. We’ll discuss a theme related to the subject of Tom Levenson’s upcoming book, which will be out in August. And we’ll ask for your elevator pitches – in just one or two sentences – for any of three different scenarios. (You’ll have to tune in to that one to find out more!)
We hope you’ll tell us how you feel about what we’ve done so far, what we have coming up, and what you would like to see us focus on going forward.
What are you watching or reading that we should know about? That you’d like to talk about?
Do you have ideas for future MC editions? We’d like to hear them!
~BGinCHI and WaterGirl
*****
TaMara’s book: published on May 14, 2020
Underway: A TJ Wilde Mystery
Tom’s book: release date is August 18, available for pre-order
Money for Nothing: The Scientists, Fraudsters, and Corrupt Politicians Who Reinvented Money, Panicked a Nation, and Made the World Rich
Omnes Omnibus
I think a thread about me would be fantastic, but you would all get it wrong.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: It would need to be a guest post, then. Of Omnes, by Omnes, for Omnes. :-)
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: We’re still processing the oppo research we did on you.
It’s…..a lot.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: It would still be wrong. I am ineffable.
@BGinCHI: I am sure I have more that I could send you if needed.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I read TaMara’s book. It’s a good read, including a visit to Havana and characters who live in a wonderful neighborhood filled with art galleries and coffee shops.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: C’mon, you’re totally effable.
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: F you too.
BGinCHI
I hope those interested will buy TaMara’s book (who doesn’t love art, Cuba, and a mystery?), and pre-order Tom’s as well (who doesn’t love bubbles? and the South Sea? best bubbles there, by far…).
Can’t wait to read both.
debbie
I’ve loved the entire series, mostly having to dead threads, alas. I hope you can keep this going. And, yay for elevator pitches!
MattF
Following up some comments about Tilda Swinton in an earlier installment, I watched Orlando last week. Not what I expected, although… I guess that goes without saying. I did, afterwards, look up her height: 5′ 11″.
eddie blake
i wouldn’t mind a thread about console gaming, one on anime or the suffusion of comic book movies throughout film.
this is a great series.
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: It’s looking like we’ll do the discussion of atopic related to Tom’s book a week from now, and talk about TaMara’s book in two weeks.
Hopefully that will give anyone who wants to read TaMara’s book before the discussion time to order the book and read it.
zhena gogolia
@BGinCHI:
TaMara’s book arrived, but I’m in the middle of Northanger Abbey. TaMara’s is next up — it looks delightful.
I have loved every one of these. I’m enjoying not having to think up the topic. It makes me feel like a student again.
BGinCHI
@eddie blake: We could try, though I have no expertise in those areas.
I think I mentioned this to you several weeks back: I have a PS3 (mostly bought it as a Blu Ray player, but thought when the kid was little I might try some games), but have never found a game I really liked to play.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
Okay, two weeks might be enough time for me. (I only read for pleasure in the last hour before bed, so I’m a little slow.)
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus:
Did you ever take a course with P. Fritzell?
BGinCHI
@zhena gogolia: Sometimes (OK, often) I just want to go to my class, and instead of teaching, sit in the back and learn.
I miss that.
And I miss actually having face to face classes, a lot.
Feathers
@MattF: I watched that the other night. It’s leaving Criterion Channel tonight, in case anyone else subscribes and wants to catch it. Saw it when it came out. I had forgotten that Quentin Crisp played Queen Elizabeth.
I am at the rewatching the films of my youth stage of moviegoing. This one held up, largely because of Tilda.
zhena gogolia
@BGinCHI:
Oh, man, do I miss face to face classes. Although I feel as if the next time I have to do it, I’ll be taking my life in my hands.
prostratedragon
Two movies I liked this week: Maqbool, a retelling of MacBeth, and The Vast of Night (special shoutout to fans of episode 8). Both are free to Prime members.
Last week I finally got around to The BlackKlansman. Rough going despite some humor, but a terrific film, must-see if you can stand it, though now might not be the time for some. The quiet hero is played by Denzel Washington’s son, John David.
eddie blake
@BGinCHI:
i’ve been fascinated by genre movies since i was a little kid. mom was a big trekkie and i was four when star wars hit. i didn’t understand why ALL movies weren’t like that.
in the early eighties, i realized the only place you could get such expansive visions and thought provoking content was in animation coming out of japan, where the only limit was the imagination of the creators, not the budget. the real robot genre pushed by tomino and the seminal show, ‘mobile suit gundam’ really changed the way to look at sci-fi cartoons and animation in general.
and the show had legs. gundam is the star trek of japan.
at the same time, my older brother and i amassed a fairly decent comic book collection when that was DECIDEDLY not the ‘cool thing’ to do. it FASCINATES me how much nerd culture has taken root in america.
lol..and in the same vein, i fell in love with video gaming more or less at the same time. have had a console since the heady days of the sega genesis. right now, still playing AC odyssey, the magnificent titanfall 2 (which since the plague began, has had a huge renaissance of player-interest) and forza horizons, which is SO immersive, it’s ridiculous.
anyway, if you’d like to build a thread around anything like that, i’d be VERY appreciative and certainly an active commenter.
NotMax
Has last week’s
gone down the memory hole?
(Not that I have anything prepared.)
;)
debbie
@debbie:
Mostly having to read dead threads, god dammit.
NotMax
An installment devoted to Guilty Pleasures in media could be awesome.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Good point. I would love it if anyone wants to post any new ideas for a great Biden ad.
I’m sure you can come up with something. :-)
WaterGirl
@debbie: Do you want me to add “read” to your comment?
BGinCHI
@eddie blake: Sure. And maybe we’ll get you to help us with it!
Thanks for these suggestions.
BGinCHI
@NotMax: I like it.
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: I almost wrote the exact same thing.
NotMax
For absolutely no reasons other than it fits in topicallyand garners a smile.
@WaterGirl
Experiencing how the sausage is made whilst working at a high profile ad agency for several years in NYC kind of soured me and whatever creative cubicles there may be still extant in the brain rebel.
eddie blake
@BGinCHI:
be glad to help out any way i could.
Josie
I have enjoyed these posts so much. It’s like the best part of being back in school. I told my son I that I wish I could have taken a class with you. Whatever you think up for us to consider is fine with me.
dexwood
@NotMax: I like this idea. Kind of along the lines, too, of something so bad what’s not to like? Killer Klowns from Outer Space.
ETA: I’ve been a fan of this weekly series from day one. I look forward to it, I learn, I laugh.
WaterGirl
@dexwood: That sounds like me when I say that Airplane is the best bad movie ever made.
Tom Levenson
Many thanks, BGinCHI and WaterGirl. And congrats, TaMara!
Looking forward to much more about 18th century MOTUs next week.
TheronWare
I just finished binge watching Deadwood on HBO Max, a true masterpiece. I’m also reading “The Great Influenza” by John Barry on my Kindle Paper White.
zhena gogolia
@BGinCHI:
Me too. And we’ll get a treasure trove of arcana from NotMax.
NotMax
@dexwood
In that vein, got Prime? For intentional schlock you *might* peek at the ‘turn down your frontal lobes and let your jaw go slack’ off-the-rails The 25th Reich.
N.B.: NOT to be construed as a recommendation.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
No. Let my stupidity stand, thanks.
eddie blake
mmm sushi.
just had my meetaversary sushi dinner with my partner.
good shit.
debbie
@Josie:
It reminds me of sitting around with friends in high school and college, shooting the shit (so to speak) and letting the conversation go where it will.
Baud
Anything that doesn’t make me feel like a cultural Luddite.
Uncle Cosmo
@WaterGirl: Per Omnes sickola, sickalorum… :^p
Yutsano
@BGinCHI: Just remember; it was [REDACTED DUE TO SPOILERS]
And that debt is still being paid by the British government. Which is why I’m much more chill about US government debt.
dexwood
@NotMax: Oh, man, the trailer stands alone. Seems like a discussion of trailers versus movies could be considered. Some seem so deceptive while others show more than you want to know.
SFBayAreaGal
@eddie blake: Comic book nerd here. Started reading comic books when I was 12 years old. Loved the Batman and Superman comics of the late 1960 early 1970s. Also was into House of Mystery House of Secrets and other horror related comic books.
I still have a collection of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, other DC comic books, Star Trek, and Star Wars that range from the 80s to the 90s.
My mom was an avid comic book reader. She collected and read the Superman and Batman comics of the late 1940s early 1950s She also liked the horror genre. She said they were more graphic before the comic book code was established. I blame my mom for my love of comic books?
I still like reading them to this day.
WaterGirl
@dexwood: ooh, that seems like a good topic.
dnfree
I enjoy these posts. Currently reading “The Plague” by Camus. Pretty sure I read it back in college in the sixties, but it’s timely.
Martin
@eddie blake: I’d be in for gaming. I’ve been a gamer since, well, 1977 when I got my first console. I don’t have any academic background in the area, but I’ve participated in the better part of the entire history of gaming, from early to modern consoles. I’ve written a few games along the way as well.
I think it’s a fascinating area with lots of very interesting developments and branches, including how it’s spread beyond the areas most people might think. Youtube and personal vlogging is mostly an outgrowth of game vlogging and lets plays. There’s subgenres like speedplays. There’s esports which I’m a fan of as well.
And what’s most interesting to me is how rapidly it moves. The whole area is no more than 50 years old.
eddie blake
@SFBayAreaGal:
house of mystery and house of secrets!! wow. those are names i’ve not heard is some time. did you get a chance to read neil gaiman’s ‘sandman’? good stuff.
my cousin sat my brother and me down in front of his comics collection in lieu of actively babysitting us. i was hooked by dc’s sci-fi themed ‘legion of superheroes’ in both their silver age and bronze age incarnations. now, of course, that title has been rebooted and retconned more times than is palatable.
was also very much into the seventies and eighties x men, as well as thor, iron man and the avengers. i have so many goddamn avengers books it’s not funny.
which titles are you reading now? do you do independents?
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: No, the English courses I took were Goldgar’s.
SFBayAreaGal
@eddie blake: Haven’t read quite a while. The last one I read was about Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I haven’t read the Sandman series. It is on my list.
I do like the independent comics
Miss Bianca
@TheronWare: Deadwood and Slings and Arrows are the only two series I try to watch every year or other year at latest.
Both series were to have enormously influenced the look and feel of the Much Ado about Nothing that I was going to be directing this summer.
Hmm…maybe “awesome adaptations”. Have you done that one yet as a theme, BGinCHI? Schroedinger’s Cat mentioned Maqbool – I am thinking I’d like to plunge into some really classic Shakespearean adaptations this year coming.
dexwood
@WaterGirl: It works for book promotions and blurbs, too. There have been times I’ve read a book partly based on what had been written about it, but thought, what the ever loving fuck? Did we read the same thing?
TaMara (HFG)
Thank you BG and Watergirl. So much fun to be included (and congrats Tom!).
Miss Bianca
@eddie blake: Aw, “meetaversary” is such a cute term! I’m going to steal that one!
eddie blake
@SFBayAreaGal:
there are competing arguments that ‘watchmen’ and ‘sandman’ are the greatest works in comics history. there have been impressive things done since, but.
‘sandman’ is a magnificent achievement, and is an unparalleled homage and love letter to the art of storytelling.
‘watchmen’, on the other hand, is IMO the greatest story about COMICS. it’s such an intricate, impressive feat. i had a chance to ask dave gibbons some structural questions as to how the series was CRAFTED, and his thoughtful responses blew my goddamn mind.
eddie blake
@Miss Bianca:
as you wish, miss. knock yourself out.
Miss Bianca
@SFBayAreaGal: Oh, man, do you still have any of those originals? That would be something!
I so vividly remember the summer of 1974, being out in San Diego visiting my grandmother, and devouring collections of 40s-50s vintage Superman, that I got from the library there.
Miss Bianca
@eddie blake:
Oh, what an awesome cousin!
eddie blake
@WaterGirl:
oh. will get back to you inna bit on the email. busy enjoying the company of my goil and getting a lil wasted.
thanks, though.
eddie blake
@Miss Bianca:
yeah, between my cousin and my trekkie mother, i was well suited to look at the world from a different perspective.
seeded many of my adult qualities.
James E Powell
@dnfree:
Back when this whole big isolation thing was getting started, and I think it was in one of these threads, I proposed that we do a group read of The Plague. The suggestion was not well-received.
Nevertheless, I re-read it in April and found several passages that could have been written about us right now. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, as they say.
eddie blake
@dexwood:
often not moved by blurbs, but there was one that i found IRRESISTIBLE. moorcock’s ‘jerry cornelius’ chronicles:
“jerry cornelius copulates, hallucinates, devastates, dies and comes back from the dead…frequently.”
i was like, i’ve GOT to read this book!!
NotMax
@James E Powell
Unlike cable, humanity has a limited and finite number of channels.
;)
RSA
I’ll throw this out there, though I don’t know if I have anything to contribute:
I used to read a lot of science fiction and fantasy when I was a kid. I dip into it still, now and then, though my tastes have changed.
Something I’ve noticed is that the Golden Age classics of science fiction are pretty terrible from a literary standpoint. They’re basically pulp stories of adventures and ideas that shaped the field, which is significant, but outside of their historical influence they’re not very good.
That started to change in the 1960s (maybe earlier, maybe later) but I think there’s still a tension between literary quality and adherence to the conventions of the genre. (Some writers make it work: my long-time favorites are Ursula K. Leguin and, to a lesser extent, Stanislaw Lem.) We see this in other genres as well, including westerns (with e.g. Larry McMurtry and Cormac McCarthy representing the literary side) and crime novels (Dashiell Hammett, etc.)
Is there a reasonable way to separate what should be thought of literary or not in a given genre, something like the way Graham Greene separated his work into novels and entertainments?
dexwood
@eddie blake: That blurb is a neon sign. Made me chuckle.
Be safe Balloon Juice.
SFBayAreaGal
@Miss Bianca: I wish I did have my mom’s comic books. I asked her about them in my teenage years. She said they got lost due to the numerous times her family moved when she was a teenage.
NotMax
@eddie blake
So old can remember the Trekkie vs. Trekker sniping.
eddie blake
@NotMax:
i’m just old enough to remember the switchover from star trek conventions to comic conventions.
eddie blake
@RSA: if you go back and read the elders of the field, your e.e. smiths, your asimovs and your clarkes, (among many others) you will find that there are clumsy baby steps at first, but then firm footing is found subsequently.
pretty much happens in any art form. the guys who come first have to invent the wheel.
SFBayAreaGal
@eddie blake: My mom was an avid science fiction reader. She loved Star Trek. Needless to say I love Star Trek and science fiction.
NotMax
@eddie blake
I go back to when both conventions were innocent celebrations of solidarity, before they became Big Bidness.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus:
Oh, Goldgar was great. I can still see the twinkle in his eye.
They just set up a scholarship fund in Fritzell’s name. He is in late stages of cancer.
zhena gogolia
@RSA:
That is a terrific topic for discussion!
eddie blake
@NotMax:
that REALLY was what happened, right?
i mean, it stopped being niche and became big business.
Miss Bianca
@RSA: Ooh, that sounds interesting!
WaterGirl
I will come back to the thread tomorrow and will make a list of every idea that shows up in this thread. So keep ’em coming, even if you get to the thread late and think it might be dead.
gene108
@Baud:
For me, on this site, I have found that impossible. I just stick around for the snark, sarcastic comments, and snide remarks.
eddie blake
did anyone watch star trek: picard, or star trek: discovery?
NotMax
@eddie blake
First episode only of each (they were free) and came away wholly underwhelmed.
In a “Jeeze, did no one notice what ‘This is not your father’s Oldsmobile’ did for that nameplate?” way.
eddie blake
@NotMax:
discovery got MUCH better in the second season. (like many other star trek shows except the first)
picard had a slow burn that built all season long and ALMOST worked, but they didn’t stick the landing in the last episode and that really kinda sucked.
eddie blake
@Martin:
sorry, i missed your comment the first time through.
i would be totally for that. it’s quite stunning how rapidly the art form has developed. my xbox one goes so well with my home theatre set-up, it’s not funny.
RSA
@eddie blake:
Oh, I agree! I think there’s a general reluctance though to recognize that those early steps are pretty terrible. Doc Smith is a good example.
And as for the tension that I mentioned: I remember getting to arguments about the resolution of A Fire Upon the Deep, in which one or more characters seem to come out of being in Focus (or however it’s described; I’ve forgotten by now) with nothing like what you’d expect of people who have committed atrocities, even unwillingly—PTSD at a minimum. I counted that as a huge flaw in characterization, but others dismissed it as not being a concern of science fiction, “a literature of ideas.” That difference of opinions is interesting to me.
NotMax
@RSA
More primitive prose but niftier wardrobe.
:)
eddie blake
@RSA:
oh, absolutely. smith’s stuff is crude. the ideas and concepts, though, are pretty brilliant. i mean, inertialess drive? and you figure the lensmen are the basis of the green lantern corps, so that works for me as a comics nerd.
sadly THAT was one anime where the imagination failed the source material.
eddie blake
@RSA:
also, no. the best science fiction is an exploration of both ideas AND emotions. i wouldn’t think you would leave trauma out of the equation.
BGinCHI
Thanks for swinging by the thread today, all.
I know how much there is going on in the world right now, so I hope we can provide some space to talk about the things that keep us going.
See you next week.
J R in WV
@Miss Bianca:
I met wife in early summer / late spring of 1969 — can’t know the exact date. We were married 1971 when she graduated from the U. I was in the Navy by then.
dnfree
@James E Powell: thanks for the comment. I too find it relevant to today’s plague.