BG thought his company was coming next weekend, so he gets the night off, but let’s talk TV, movies, books, and music anyway.
Treadmill-watching report: I thought I would try Lincoln Lawyer next, but instead I tried a movie called Mile 22. I bailed on that one after 30 minutes. Maybe I quit just before it got good? But I don’t think so. Now I’m watching Inside Man. But I think Lincoln Lawyer will be up next after that one.
I seem to have missed out on at least a couple of good shows on Masterpiece Mystery. Not sure how that happened.
What are you guys up to?
Open thread.
raven
Packing for the beach!
Lady WereBear
Trump’s back on Twitter. I’ve paused my account there, but not deleted it. I’m hoping some followers will wake up in the morning and get my forwarding address :)
For the curious, I wrote this little guide for my cat blog readers. It includes a nice server wizard that gets you over that first hump. Then, it’s basic sign up.
I love it there. Wish you were here!
Suzanne
I braved the mall and did some Christmas shopping today. I’m not going to a mall again until after the holiday. If you go, bring your patience and your coffee.
Nancy
I like Annika, on Masterpiece.
Nicola Walker is amazing. I’ve seen her in a few shows (Last Tango in Halifax, something MI 5 or 6) and she inhabits a role and completely lives in that person’s life.
wonkie
I quit twitter after the first round of firings. I won’t go back because I will not share a site with Pres. Pussygrabber.
I can’t someone create a new Twitter, different name but same concept?
BTW the BJ community helped me get some kittens homed. THANK YOU!!!! I have two left.
raven
@Nancy: She’s really good in “Unforgotten”.
billcinsd
Amazon Prime seems to have the 90s AMC show Remember WENN, which I loved 30 years ago. It is not a frenetic comedy, but does have many excellent performances of many different types
Scout211
@Lady WereBear: The headlines are currently Trump snubs Twitter.
Any bets on how long that ”snub” will last?
WaterGirl
@Nancy: Yeah, someone mentioned that in another thread earlier today, so I checked. The next episode is #6, now where to find 1-5 without having to pay for them.
Same with Magpie Mysteries. The next episode of that one is #6, also, where to find 1-5 of that one, too, without having to pay for them.
What else is happening on Masterpiece Mystery? I have probably missed those, too.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
Turned 60 yesterday and promptly woke up with knees so sore I couldn’t put weight on them. Rite of passage?
I finished up season 2 of “Another Life.” Interesting premise, some of the beats are telegraphed, but it was entertaining enough.
raven
@Nancy: She’s also good in “River” if you can get past her playing the role of a dead person with half her head blown off.
raven
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: Just wait.
waspuppet
Season 3 of Dead to Me is out! Highly recommended (I mean the first two, I know about.)
Baud
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️:
Happy birthday!!!
CaseyL
I have some very vintage Patagonia fleece leggings that I bought when they first came out, some 20-odd years ago. I love these leggings, they’re cozy and comfy. (Patagonia no longer makes them, and I snatch the ones I can find off of second-hand sites like Ebay and Mercari). The black pair is one of my originals, and they developed a huge hole, not along a seamline, either. Today I patched them, possibly the best patch job I’ve ever done. Yay, me!
My exciting life…
delphinium
@Nancy: She was really good in Unforgotten too.
The first thing I remember seeing her in was Touching Evil (1997), a tv series that starred Robson Green.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Scout211: Likely Trump seeing if Musk is dumb enough to pay him to post to Twitter.
Lady WereBear
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: Too much swordplay on the holodeck, Captain?
Gretchen
I watched Lincoln Lawyer last week and really enjoyed it. I expected it to have something to do with Abraham Lincoln, but it’s about an LA lawyer who works out of his Lincoln Towncar and inexplicably inherits the practice of a friend just as he gets out of rehab.
James E Powell
I am watching & liking Andor on Disney & Peripheral on Amazon Prime,
Tonight is the Big Finale! of The Walking Dead & I’m surprised that it’s not a bigger deal.
JPL
@WaterGirl: If you have prime and choose the Amazon Day, you accumulate points for video. Although I watched it PBS, I jumped ahead and finished it on Prime for free.
errg
I watched the first episode of Inside Man and bailed, some things just seemed a little too implausible for me, and I was a bit squicked by the whole death penalty aspect of it.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@raven: Yeah, I figured that’s how it’s going to go.
James E Powell
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️:
Happy Birthday & Welcome to 60s.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Baud: Thanks!!
randy khan
@Nancy:
Nicola Walker is great. We first saw her in Unforgotten. I’m going to guess that Annika may really grab some people and annoy some other people, but we liked it a lot.
JPL
The grand imp who is three is coming over tomorrow for a sleepover I have Disney and HBOmax. Any suggestions for a movie night?
raven
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️:
Well, my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And I’m crazy for love but I’m not coming on
I’m just paying my rent every day in the Tower of Song
Chacal Charles Calthrop
Just want to thank everyone here….this weekend I found myself in a discussion with a group of people who included a young NY prosecutor. The discussion turned to national politics, and the prosecutor kept demanding everyone’s opinion about various congressional Democrats.
I was the only who could keep up, and everything I said came from lurking at balloon-juice. I read this site to keep myself informed & to make sure I vote correctly, but the amount of sheer knowledge at this place is really mind-boggling. Thanks everyone!
delphinium
@James E Powell:
I watched the first few seasons of The Walking Dead, but then for whatever reason, never got back to it-forgot it was still on.
JPL
@randy khan: Right. I was concerned about recommending it, but the person loved it. Like me watched .the same episode a few times. I can’t wait for season 2
raven
@JPL:
The Secret of Roan Inish
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Lady WereBear: Too many years chasing RF-4Cs, F-16s, and A-10s up and down tarmacs. It catches up sooner or later.
Lady WereBear
We’ve been celebrating the new Roku stick we got with lots of fun new stuff. Apple has a comedy with Will Ferrell about a man whose therapist led a thirty year lie? Dark comedy.
For fun on a budget, I gifted myself the Roku Shout! channel, because the Lairds of WereBear cannot get enough MST3K and giant bug movies, often combined. It’s only $3 or something, but I swear, everytime I go on it I find something I want to watch, like The Saint series starring Roger Moore, and old TV movies that some of us might remember.
WaterGirl
@JPL:
I do have Prime, but I have no idea what that is or how to do it? Can you clue me in?
raven
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: Them Warthogs’ll get ya.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@James E Powell: Thank you!!
Lady WereBear
@JPL: My recall of that age is that they have a favorite movie, and that is all they want to watch. Good luck and godspeed.
UncleEbeneezer
We just started 1899 which is a period, puzzle-box show by the people who did Dark. So far, pretty great but you def need to be comfortable with not knowing what the hell is going on most of the time.
Really enjoying this season of The Crown. Elizabeth Debicki is really excellent as Diana (swoon) and the episodes about Margaret and the Al Fayed family, were both really moving.
Also just started Never Have I Ever and it is surprisingly fun/funny and endearing.
We’ve also started our run of Nutcracker ballets that we will watch from now until Xmas. Miss the old Battle of the Nutcrackers that Ovation used to host, but there are some decent ones on YouTube and for rent on various streaming platforms.
We’ve also been enjoying Magpie Murders :)
randy khan
Various PBS and adjacent shows:
Miss Scarlet and the Duke – Victorian lady detective and a Scotland Yard detective inspector, love-hate relationship.
Astrid – French/Belgian series set in Paris, pairing a police detective and a woman on the spectrum who works in the archives. This is part of a broader grouping called Walter’s Choice (not sure who Walter is) that also included the original Professor T (much better than the British remake).
Not sure of their availability if you’re not a member of your local station, but maybe these are on Prime. That’s where we found the last season of Thou Shalt Not Kill.
raven
@WaterGirl: Here’s some info. If you have a ROKU you just add their app.
KSinMA
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: Happy Birthday!!!
I watched “Master of Light” on HBO last night. Loved it.
kalakal
Binge watching the old Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series. Rather fun
Anyway
They changed up the format on Jeopardy Tournament of Champions — first person to win 3 games instead of highest scoring after 2/ 3 games. They are at 2-2-1 now. Ken Jennings is the perfect host.
Almost Retired
It’s a gorgeous 70 degree day with crystal clear smog-free skies and a gentle subtropical breeze. My wife is day-drinking with friends at a beachside cafe in Santa Monica. Me? I HAVE BEEN WORKING ALL DAY! Sorry to shout. I picked the stupidest most inaccurate nym possible for Balloon Juice. Sigh. Follow me for more tips on effortlessly easing into retirement.
UncleEbeneezer
@randy khan: We couldn’t hang with Scarlett & The Duke because the dude is just so patronizing/toxic.
Lady WereBear
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: My time on the holodeck has led me to the practice of regularly putting that Knox gelatin in my tea. You can get it in bulk as collagen. It really does wonders for me and his Lordship.
Ruckus
@Scout211:
Wouldn’t it be a shame that after elon paid $44billion for twit and allowed the twit back on, then the twit snubs him for his own hate site and elon loses $44 billion for absolutely nothing. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to stop snickering at the poor wittle bitch boy.
mrmoshpotato
Inside Man – the Will Smith movie?
narya
Spent HOURS today trying to get the rower functioning with the new monitor; I have not yet found success. Finally gave up–it’ll be warm enough to run this week, and I can finish it next weekend. Took a walk, got some spices on sale at Penzey’s, then spent two hours talking to two friends from college. We started the video calls at the start-ish of the pandemic, and we’ve continued them, much to my delight. Last night I fell asleep during episode 2 of the GBBS, so tonight I will have to go back and see how the Garibaldi biscuits came out.
JPL
@raven: It’s on Prime. If not tomorrow, he’s off the two weeks before Christmas also.
Frankensteinbeck
Got a basal cell carcinoma on my neck, scheduled for removal, and while that sounds scary it’s the least dangerous cancer there is. Like, when I told my family my brother went “It’s been there 30 years? I thought you said it was stage 1!” and my mother the doctor goes, “There are no stages.” It’s just a growth, not a cancer in the sense people normally think.
At this very second, I’m getting some writing done. This book is going miserably slowly. The release for A Spaceship Repair Girl Supposedly Named Rachel went badly, and my publisher has been a whooooole lot less attentive lately, and I’ve been pretty depressed about my career. Still moving forward.
As for Shows, I’m working through Amphibia. It’s no Owl House or Infinity Train, and certainly no She-Ra. It’s not even He-Man: Revelations, which was actually pretty ding dang good. But it’s worth watching and cartoons are good for me.
EDIT – @raven:
For the animation-inclined, I cannot sufficiently recommend Song of the Sea, by the same people who did Secret of Kells and Wolfwalkers. Irish animation studio. Really honking good stuff. They depict some fine fae.
raven
@Almost Retired: Read “The Retirement Maze”.
Poe Larity
If you like the movie, you should watch the commercials
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP0ua3K684Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3eN9u5N2Q4
Lady WereBear
@WaterGirl: The shipping bonus: if you choose that option you get a $1 digital credit.
raven
@JPL: Beautiful film, Sayles is awesome!
Lady WereBear
@UncleEbeneezer: We really like 1899 too. Still at the don’t mind waiting stage.
Ruckus
@Almost Retired:
Did you or are you going to wait till you were 72 to retire?
Cause otherwise I’ve got you beat….. Hey this isn’t really a contest one wants to win is it?
Baud
No one wants to work anymore.
HinTN
@raven: I’ll never forget John’s story of the swim-up bar and the Warthog pilot. TRUTH!
RSA
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️:
I’m in my late 50s. Several weeks ago I somehow injured my back, doing nothing special that I can remember, and it resulted in doctor appointments, X-rays, meds, and no running or lifting for almost a month. It’s taking forever to get back to where I used to be. WTH? I went from thinking, “Aging is no big deal,” to thinking, “Now I know what ‘infirm’ means, and it sucks.”
Amazon Prime makes available Kindle novels to read for free, which for me reading mysteries and thrillers typically means the first of a series. They’re mostly disposable popcorn novels, so I don’t have much to add to this thread.
narya
@raven: Another Sayles fan here! I first discovered him through his novels–before his first movie!–and I love his storytelling.
Lady WereBear
@raven: Oh, sorry @WaterGirl — I misinterpreted that one :)
Almost Retired
@raven: Thanks! Not familiar with it, so I’ll definitely check it out.
Lady WereBear
@kalakal: He was a fine Holmes.
geg6
Had tickets to see Hadestown last night (a gift from my niece along with tickets to Jagged Little Pill in January). The show coincided with Pittsburgh’s Light Up Night. I was dreading it. But it turned out great! We were able to reserve parking across the street from the Benedum. Many city main streets were closed, so traffic was nuts. We spent a half hour going three blocks to get to our parking garage. But even that was fortuitous because the second of three fireworks displays went off right in front of us as we sat motionless. It was pretty cool. The entire theater district was pedestrian only, with food booths and drink booths. We had some delicious gourmet grilled cheese sammies and then saw the show. Which was just terrific. A wonderful telling of one of the great tales I read in a Greek and Roman history class in college. Sadly, we missed the free concert by Joan Jett since it was in conflict with the show. The huge crowds were friendly and happy and well behaved. The only downer was how cold it was. Too early for this kind of cold!
As far as tv goes, I plan to binge The Serpent Queen since I have the week off. Anybody see it? My sister recommended it.
raven
@narya: Have you seen “Men With Guns”? Awesome flick.
Cacti
So, it turns out the Colorado Springs nightclub shooter is the grandson of J6 terrorist sympathizing state assemblyman Randy Voepel from Santee, CA (aka Klantee/the most racist town in greater San Diego).
If you’d like to let the assemblyman know what you think of his family values, here’s his e-mail address.
[email protected]
(Publicly available on his website, btw, let anyone accuse me of doxxing.)
Lady WereBear
@Almost Retired: I made no effort at all. My industry collapsed and I groped along until I took it early. :)
Sometimes no way to win.
Ruckus
@raven:
I didn’t find it to be all that difficult, other than actually attempting to not go stir crazy attempting to remain engaged with actual, live humans. Fortunately I live in a seniors complex (all over 55) so there are a fair number of like minded geezers to converse with.
Alison Rose
You mention books and it’s an Alison Rose Bat Signal. Here are my favorite novels from the past handful of years, including this year because I’m 99.9% sure nothing I read from now until December 31 will surpass it:
2011 is the year I started using Goodreads consistently, so I don’t have yearly faves for prior to that.
(*This is my number one favorite book of all time and means more to me than I could put into words. Thus, if you have read it and didn’t like it, or even just think it was good but not great, do not tell me because I don’t want to have to loathe you.)
TS
@Nancy:
We see it on SBS in my part of the world. On an earlier thread it was mentioned series II is on the way – I hope it gets to us – we saw series one early this year
Another series with Nicola Walker was The Split also starred Stephen Mangan. Excellent
I was very underwhelmed with her latest series I saw called Marriage – disappointing, didn’t get past the first episode
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@raven: Amazing song!! Thank you for that!
JPL
@Lady WereBear: Coco Melon is the reason I got rid of Netflix. Every other day they sent an email reminding me that I didn’t finish the episode. hah The last break we watched the original Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins. He loved Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang.
HinTN
@Ruckus: I’m letting it go in dribs and drabs. “Retired” at 58 to go to a lower paying, higher opportunity job. Retired from that after 11 years. Now a “work at my own pace” consultant and drawing SS, too. Not a bad gig.
Brachiator
I don’t have Netflix, but I know it has a lot of good stuff.
This documentary about Robert Downey Sr, premiering on December 2 looks very charming.
ETA. I remember seeing Downey’s sly satire Putney Swope during my college years. Still a wonderful movie.
kalakal
@Almost Retired: I have just under 3 years to go, I look forward to it a lot
Lady WereBear
They have some good stuff lately, like of lot of Robert McCammon’s catalog. The Wolf Hour is gourmet popcorn: a werewolf fights the Nazis.
JPL
@raven: ha ha Same little grand imp on 400 when there was a slowdown, asked his dad whether or not there was a shootout. In defense they do monitor TV time, but his dad watches early morning news. No more though.
Steve in the ATL
@raven: packing for Germany!
@Suzanne: I went to the Mall of America yesterday. Will never make that mistake again. Oh, the humanity.
Delk
Rewatching Blue Murder (crime drama with the excellent Caroline Quentin) on BritBox while knitting a toe up sock.
Almost Retired
@Lady WereBear: Yep. I am a plaintiff side employment and labor lawyer (at least for a little while longer), and I have had way too many clients with unplanned early retirements. Especially in the Aerospace Industry. So I know how lucky I am in the grand scheme. But I thrive on whining.
Ruckus
@raven:
You have HAIR?
Mine deserted over the last 20 yrs. Slowly and then poof – gone.
Yes I see it’s a link to Leonard.
Lady WereBear
@Alison Rose: This is why there are so many books. Because we all need special ones.
Ruckus
@Almost Retired:
But I thrive on whining.
It sometimes helps to fit in here……
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@KSinMA: Thank you!!
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Lady WereBear: I will look into it, thanks!
mrmoshpotato
@JPL:
Phineas and Ferb marathon!
Spanky
@Almost Retired: I’m waiting for some young lady to riff off of your nym with “Almost Pregnant”.
I was able to easily punch out because I had started cutting back my dependencies a couple of months before my planned date. Mrs. Spanky, otoh, was talked into staying an extra FOUR MONTHS because omg, everything is going to collapse! It didn’t.
It also helps if you have (many) interests outside work.
Soprano2
@billcinsd: We loved that show. It was on when AMC was still old movies.
Steve in the ATL
@Almost Retired: a plaintiffs lawyer has to thrive on winning.
Oh, you said WHINING….
Almost Retired
@Ruckus: that’s right. Whining. And gratuitous fucking profanity.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@RSA: Papa Cisco once admitted that “Getting old sucks, but it beats the alternative.” I expect that as with most things, he was probably right.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I am 4 episodes into the latest Lord of The Rings series. It’s pretty sweet. The Orcs are all magas
Almost Retired
@Steve in the ATL: you haven’t met most of my clients. Whining leads to winning!!
leeleeFL
@Nancy: If you haven’t watched Unforgotten, you must! It is an amazing detective show, and Nicola Walker is phenomenal! I am sad that Annika is ending! it’s been a treat!
HinTN
@Steve in the ATL: LOL, … Germany, eh? Bratwurst und steins?
Baud
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
Credit where it’s due. They made the red caps work.
Alison Rose
@Lady WereBear: Agreed!
HinTN
@Baud: Credit where due.
JPL
@mrmoshpotato: Thanks. saved it
eachother
High def. High rating.
Meeting the 15 minute willing to wait for watchability limit.
Any movie suggestions?
RSA
@Lady WereBear: Cool! Thanks for letting me know. I loved McCammon’s horror novels, before he switched to writing historical mysteries. Boy’s Life is a great Bradburyesque piece.
Lady WereBear
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: Thing is, if it helps, it’s fairly cheap and easy to implement. And you’ll know in a month, with no side effects.
It can be a sign you need more protein. I like steak and eggs. Latest science shows that’s the macro most neglected.
geg6
@narya:
This season of GBBS has some real egregious shit. Mexican Week is a special kind of travesty. It was nuts. Not their best season, IMHO.
RSA
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: Yup! The older generation has some wisdom to impart. Come to think of it, we probably qualify now. I’m waiting on the wisdom to arrive any day now.
frosty
@Lady WereBear: Favorite movie … when my oldest was that age (3 or thereabouts) we watched League of Their Own and/or Man From Snowy River daily. I was convinced he was growing up thinking baseball was played by girls and cowboys were Australian. Don’t ask me why those were the ones he latched on to!
Good movies though. I would wander by, sit down, and watch them with him. Enjoyed them every time, too.
Lady WereBear
I learned that early, visiting my grandparents in Zephyrhills, back when all the houses were made of cement block, and the roads paved with rocks the size of bocce balls.
The ones who liked to garden were still happy, while the ones who sat around and whined sucked the happy from one.
Old School
@WaterGirl: I assume your issue with missing the shows might be the same issue we had. We have the DVR set to record “Masterpiece”, but for whatever reason the shows currently running, Annika, Magpie Murders, and Miss Scarlet and the Duke, show up under their individual titles rather than Masterpiece.
Luckily, we realized it after two weeks, so the episodes we missed were still on the PBS website.
Steve in the ATL
@HinTN: ja, und Weihnachtsmärkte!
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Lady WereBear: I’ll let you know
SFBayAreaGal
@Nancy: She was fantastic in the Unforgotten. The series Unforgotten is fantastic.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@RSA: BWAHAAHAA!
I at least know what not to do
geg6
@Alison Rose:
I liked Hamnet a lot. It’s not my favorite book, but I really liked it.
zhena gogolia
@UncleEbeneezer: I liked those two episodes of The Crown too. Not crazy about the Ipatiev House one we’re in the middle of now.
JPL
@mrmoshpotato: The challenge will be his brother that I tend for four days. He loves books and at 18 months says dat book. The same book over and over. Remember those days. I’m in my seventies and remember those days. There is no movie that will take away from that dat book..
Brachiator
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️:
Happy birthday!
I vaguely remember turning 60, but can definitely relate to knee issues.
Getting older has its ironies. I always loved taking walks and hiking, and imagined doing a lot of hiking as I got older.
I still get out. But I am a lot slower and require a lot of recovery time.
frosty
@Almost Retired:It’s 27 degrees and windy here in South PA but no snow or ice storms (knocks wood). I’m sitting by the fireplace because I can warm up the room without jacking up the utility bills (firewood was free this year, from a friend who took down a tree).
ETA I too am Almost Retired. I stayed on the books in case my valuable skills were needed, and after two years I’m on call for annual updates of water quality modeling and assistance on a report that I started back in 2016. The Holidays are a good time for a little extra cash.
bmoak
Watching: Lovecraft Country. Picked up the Season 1 DVD cheap (Is/Will there be a Season 2?). Read the book a few years ago. Saw the first two episodes a while back when I stayed in a hotel with HBO.
Reading: The Silent Dead by Tetsuya Honda. A relatively new Japanese detective series about a young female homicide detective in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police.
And it looks like graphic novels in school and public libraries will be the next culture war wedge issue. Missouri apparently passed a very strict, very vague law criminalizing making visual content that is “obscene” or “disturbing” available to minors that is leading to school districts banning or removing lots of very known graphic novels (and art history books). One school district, after a complaint by one parent, yanked every graphic novel (300+) in the district library system.
Steve in the ATL
@Almost Retired: oh I’ve met plenty, even if not yours specifically….
SFBayAreaGal
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: Welcome to the 60s club. Happy birthday. I hope your day was full of love, laughter and fun.
zhena gogolia
@Delk: I adore Caroline Quentin on Jonathan Creek
Booger
@geg6: Just dug up the First (BBC) season (2010) on Roku. Hard to believe it the same show, it’s crawled so far up its own asshole.
FelonyGovt
I highly recommend the book Mercury Pictures Presents, by Anthony Marra. A tale about a movie studio in Los Angeles in the 1940’s, with many fascinating characters who are European exiles from WWII. The main character is a brilliant woman from Italy who must register as an “enemy alien” and can’t travel more than 5 miles from her home. There is also a third generation Chinese American actor who can only get crummy roles as evil Japanese enemies. Probably the best book I’ve read this year (and I’ve read lots).
@Almost Retired: You’re doing retirement all wrong.
frosty
@raven: I bought “The Retirement Maze” about five years ago on your recommendation. It helped my decision not to move further away from the kids and to stay on the books with my company. It has a lot of really good advice!
Lady WereBear
@SFBayAreaGal: Marked on my save list. thanks, all
FelonyGovt
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: Happy birthday! There really is life after 60.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Brachiator: Thank you! I’ve had a (left) knee surgery, but that was decades ago. L5 rupture 20 years ago. Would love to avoid the knife at this point if I can.
HinTN
@Steve in the ATL: Good Lord, man. Be careful. 🎁
Sure Lurkalot
@raven:
Wish I would have had this recommendation! Some people take to retirement as if they never worked and here I am, 5 years in, seriously considering going back to work.
UncleEbeneezer
@Lady WereBear: I hear Dark was pretty damn confusing until the last couple episodes of the Third (and final) Season. We gave up on it after about 4 episodes, but I may give it another try as I hear it really wrapped up amazingly well.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@SFBayAreaGal:
@FelonyGovt: Thank you!!
Old School
@bmoak:
Nope. HBO canceled it after one season.
HinTN
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: If you need knee replacements do not delay. It’s a different world these days. Just do it!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Speaking of weird ass, possibly not even human, Techbros. Phil Spencer , CEO of Xbox opined thusly about Mark “Totally NOT a Replicant” Zuckerburg’s Meta.
There is something pathetically hilarious about how Zuckerburg’s idea of a paradise is a meeting room. More seriously, it’s sure is curious how these so called giants of tech are such deeply damaged human beings. I can’t recall anyone accusing Ford, Carnegie, JP Morgan, Rockefeller of being possible serial killers. Even in the infamous photo of Morgen holding a chair arm like a knife, he comes across as pugnacious, rather that some wierdo who really needs to be under medical supervision.
Lady WereBear
@UncleEbeneezer: I gotta say, you aren’t selling me with three seasons to watch three shows.
I got some trouble with your math, there :)
Lady WereBear
@Old School: It was too bad because that was sheer awesomeness for a while.
kalakal
@Steve in the ATL: The scene of many a Gluhwein inspired purchase, later to be regretted :)
Anyway
@Alison Rose:
I recognize a kindred spirit, I can’t resist a book list. Recently finished:
NaijaGirl’s -Jollof Rice and Other Stories- (enjoyed it, recommend it)
Ayobami Adebayo’s -Stay with me- (recommended in the same post)
Becky Chambers’ novellas (liked the first one, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy was a little twee)
-State of Terror- co-authored by HRC (perfect for a long flight)
narya
@raven: I haven’t seen that one yet. I’m only missing a couple, and that’s one of them.
kalakal
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: Mrs Kalakal had a knee replacement about 8 months ago, not 100% yet, but its made her life so much better already. I’m a fan
Happy Birthday and welcome to the 60s club
Jay
@Scout211:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11008371/Trump-brags-Elon-Musk-drop-knees-beg-subsidies.html
trnc
Same. It felt like it was written using Mad Libs.
narya
@geg6: Yeah, so I’ve heard . . . I may skip that episode altogether.
WaterGirl
@JPL: Too young for The Wire or Breaking Bad? :-)
Just kidding, I have no recommendations for little ones.
UncleEbeneezer
We are GOING TO MEXICO!!!
After much consideration of Hawaii, we decided instead to resurrect our Yucatan trip that we had to abandon in 2019. We will be going in early-mid January. Staying in Valladolid (to do Chichen Itza) and then Merida. Hawaii looks awesome, but we’ve been dreaming of visiting the Yucatan for a long time and figured it was time to finally do it. Can’t wait!
WaterGirl
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: That’s really awesome! thanks for sharing your story with url
Sure Lurkalot
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: Happy 60! My mother said she didn’t “feel old” until 60 and I’m sorry to say that there’s some truth to that for me too. After decades of being a daily exerciser, hiker, biker and other activities with injuries slim to none, I’ve since torn a miniscus, had tennis elbow (both arms simultaneously!), strained periformis, and most recently, a sprained ankle which some how resulted in capsulitis. It seems like I’m always in some stage of healing.
SFBayAreaGal
@geg6: I agree. That episode was awful.
WaterGirl
@randy khan: both of those sound good.
WaterGirl
@raven: No roku. I do have Prime, though. but my research earlier today made it look like you had to BUY episodes of the PBS shows to see them on Prime.
prostratedragon
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️:
1. Happy Birthday!
2. Tylenol, diclofenac (voltaren generic); essential supplies.
WaterGirl
@KSinMA: What’s Master of Light about?
WaterGirl
@Almost Retired: I Really Am Trying To Retire might be more accurate, but it seems kind of cumbersome!
Yutsano
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: Hap Day of Birth Emissary!
trollhattan
@waspuppet: Quite a season, finished “Dead to Me” last night.
I was already impressed with Christina Applegate as an actor-comedian, but her interplay with Linda Cardellini is simply some of the best I’ve seen. A lot has to be improv, because they just start riffing and holy hell.
Top recommendation status.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: No, this one has David Tennant and Stanley Tucci. It’s on Netflix.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Scout211: Truth social is basically based on the open source code that is Mastodon… His people didn’t develop anything
frosty
Books: This is a change of pace from the other commenters. I’ve been reading a lot of non-fiction lately, many about the women who helped the Allies win WWII and others with scientific accomplishments, many of whom were ignored for decades:
Kiernan, Denise. The Girls of Atomic City. Women running the calutrons in Oak Ridge
Morgan, George. Rocket Girl. The chemist who figured out the fuel formula for the US’s first rockets, postwar
Loftis, Larry. Code Name Lise. The woman who became WWII’s most highly decorated spy
Purnell, Sonia. A Woman of No Importance. Virginia Hall, who worked undercover in France for SOE
Helm, Sarah. A Life In Secrets. Vera Atkins’s postwar search for her SOE agents captured by the Gestapo
Mudy, Liza. Code Girls. The women recruited to be codebreakers for the Army and Navy in Washington
Olson, Lynne. Madame Fourcade’s Secret War. The woman who headed the largest spy network in occupied France.
Kleiman, Kathy. Proving Ground; the six women who programmed ENIAC, the first multipurpose computer. IMHO they basically invented programming and software.
RSA
Wow. I’m not much aware of graphic novels, but they’ve really become part of modern culture. Among the best I’ve read:
Art Spiegelman’s Maus
Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series
Frank Miller and Alan Moore in the superhero genre
Jeff Smith’s Bone
There are probably others I’m forgetting. In any case, it would be a shame if young people were excluded from the experience of reading such work.
SFBayAreaGal
@WaterGirl: Have you been watching Stanley Tucci Finding Italy? It’s on CNN
Wapiti
My dad swears by Knox gelatin, which he mixes into his coffee. I get him the 1-pound tubs on Amazon. I do think the congealed coffee in the bottom of the cup is a bit gross.
Percysowner
@billcinsd: I loved Remember WENN. I was really sad when they cancelled it, without enough notice for them to wrap the series. It wasn’t a big cliffhanger, but I would have like to have a nice tidy ending.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@HinTN: @kalakal: Ironically enough, Mama Cisco had one done after Papa Cisco passed. If she could do it at 76, I don’t really have an excuse.
Brachiator
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Robber Baron was about the nicest thing that some of these people were called. The social history and journalism of the day were not kind to these masters of the universe. By comparison some of these tech leaders are benign.
They do not yet appear to be as desperate to marry with Old Money or with the remnants of European aristocracy. They don’t appear to need to set themselves up as the official American Aristocracy or to demand that their mates come from the upper class.
Sister Golden Bear
Sorry to yuck people’s yum, but it’s been a rough day for me. I’m not OK. Alternated with spending time on the bird hellsite to be with folks from Trans Twitter and Queer Twitter, and having to take breaks to go outside and touch grass for a bit
Planning to watch some mindless TV tonight to take my mind and heart off things. Suggestions appreciated.
Jay
yesterday, I went to a local flyfishing shop, Searun Tackle, * bought some stuff for tying Euronymphs and some material for fishing Euronymphs.
Aside from the Lower Rainland having actual jobs, one of the reason’s it was okay to move back here, was the fishing, (degraded).
In the “Loops”, when the lake wasn’t frozen, I could just walk down the the road, cast from shore, and bring home Brook Trout or 4 different strains of rainbows, for supper, when I wasn”t getting run over by deer.
I’ve done a ton of different flyfishing over the years, but I have never done Euronymphing, so its something new to learn.
*Flyfishing shops got “killed” by online and box stores. Then the Box Stores died. It used to be, that you would go to a place like Grand Forks, stop in the local flyfishing shop, get some leader, local flies, info, now only a few places survive.
SFBayAreaGal
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: I had my right hip replaced a few years ago. People told me I would feel like a new person. They were right
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Sure Lurkalot: Thanks!! I’ve wanted to get to a point where I can move around more, I’ll need to adjust to what I can and cannot do.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Sister Golden Bear: SGB, I’m so sorry for what happened, and what you’re dealing with as a result. Please know that you are among friends here.
WaterGirl
@Frankensteinbeck: I don’t think we’ve done an Authors in Our Midst for A Spaceship Repair Girl Supposedly Named Rachel .
It sounds fun, maybe we should do that?
FelonyGovt
@Sister Golden Bear: I’m sorry you’ve had a rough day. Remember to take care of yourself.
Mindless TV, maybe Midnight Diner on Netflix or Acapulco on Apple TV.
trollhattan
Let it be recorded in our climatey changey world, had a nice 15-mile cycle this afternoon wearing shorts and an LS tshirt. #NotBuffaloFerSure
WaterGirl
@Lady WereBear: I have no idea what the shipping bonus is, either! I guess I’ll pay more attention next time I buy something and I’ll figure it out.
WaterGirl
@Baud: LO,L :-)
Another Scott
Speaking of “popular culture”…
Cui bono? People respond to incentives…
(via OrinKerr)
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@RSA:
There is also the wonderful Persepolis: A Novel by Marjane Satrapi.
Also…
A harrowing and beautiful work. It would be shameful to deny these books to teen readers.
trollhattan
@Jay: All respect for you fly guys/gals, it’s an all-consuming thing. I’ve adapted tenkara for taking along backpacking, but simply can’t get my arms around the whole traditional fly fishing thing. (As if I needed another hobby.)
Need to note that Euronymphs would have been an object of pursuit in an earlier phase of my life.
Alison Rose
@Anyway: Stay With Me was so good!! And I have Jollof Rice on my TBR cart and am looking forward to it :)
Martin
So, last time we did this I said I didn’t want to see anything that was green lit by someone like me for the benefit of someone like me. I had to think about that some.
One thing that I think is worth exploring is how culture gets enshrined in media (usually in a lagging way, because the economics of media lags) and who gets to do that. My main problem with so much popular media – even brand new stuff – is that it all feels so regressive. It all seems to be built to one degree or another on the same foundation of white christian patriarchy that we fight against in politics. It’s dialed back, sure, but we (including all of us here) are so acclimated to that foundation that all successful popular media still needs to be built on it, still needs to be produced and directed by people acclimated by it, and still needs to be measured by it.
And so, the only thing that now feels comfortable is media that is gets to me by bypassing that system, where marginalized people can tell the stories they want to tell without anyone else’s permission to tell them. They aren’t necessarily comfortable stories to hear, but that sort of begs the question of why we consume media to begin with – to reinforce those cultural concepts that we’re acclimated to (even if we would push against them in other contexts) or acclimate ourselves to where culture is moving to. And if it’s not the latter, then how do we move ourselves forward along with the culture if we keep retreating back into the comforting space of that older foundation?
I mean, if you’re LGBTQ, then yeah, you get a whole bunch of new LGBTQ media, but I think it’s also pretty apparent that media is coming with a whole bunch of strings to make sure they weren’t moving too quickly. Yeah, Will and Grace was helpful to pull the non-LGBTQ community forward, but *very* slowly and in very specific ways, and designed to reinforce specific stereotypes. It that the best way to do this? Should we buy into that? It’s been nearly a quarter century since that show came out, and I woke up to todays news. Having trouble buying that’s the best way to do this.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: Ah.
UncleEbeneezer
@Sister Golden Bear: So sorry to hear that. Big virtual hugs to you.
For mindless, escapism I highly suggest long hiking videos. Check out: Kraig Adams, NorwegianExplorer, MyOwnFrontier, Catherine Gregory and Sheety on Youtube. All have some great hour+ long hikes showing multi-day trips with some incredible footage. Lots of E. Sierra footage (which I know you are a fan), but also great trips in MT, WY, Canada and even S. America, Europe (Kraig) and Scandinavia (NorwegianExplorer). Skip MyOwnFrontier’s Wind River vids, but otherwise Joey’s vids are the absolute best hiking videos out there, imo.
Or if you want to look at extremely pretty New England fall foliage, check out TroutAndCoffee. He’s a bit pretentious/twee, very “influencer”y, but damn, his camera shots are absolutely stunning.
For other, uplifting tv, check out the Great Pottery Throwdown (on HBOMax). Same vibe as GBBO only even more sweet. Also really impressive skills.
funlady75
@raven: I love this movie!
Sister Golden Bear
@Sister Golden Bear: Day got worse. I find out a good friend of mine was friends with one of the kids would was killed. Dead kid was a trans guy who was an absolute sweetheart and loved by all the folks at Club Q. Fuck….
Sister Golden Bear
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: @FelonyGovt: @UncleEbeneezer: Thanks all.
FWIW, one of the things that got me through quarantine was there’s a genre of POV videos by people walking various cities. Normally without any narration except some subtitles on when/where it was shot, and sometimes the particular streets. Probably time to watch some more.
James E Powell
@kalakal:
Where is that streaming?
Anotherlurker
I can recommend “Upstart Crow” staring David Mitchel, on Britbox. It was produced by Ben Elton (also creator of “Blackadder”) and it is a sitcom built around the career of William Shakespeare.
The writing is very funny and it is obvious that the writers love their subject. For example, one episode has a subplot that lampoons “Hamlet” as a comedy.
Enjoy!
delphinium
@Brachiator:
Never read the graphic novel but I thought the animated movie was really good.
zhena gogolia
@James E Powell: I seem to have it on Britbox. I’ve never seen it. Sounds good.
Sister Golden Bear
@Martin:
A bit tangental, but one of the tragic things about the pending demise of the bird hellsite, is that it enabled exactly that sort of thing. Moreover, those voices could reach mainstream audiences in ways they couldn’t before, and speaking truth directly to power. (E.g. Boebert getting absolutely read to filth tonight for her Tweets today offering condolences to the same people she incited stochastic terrorism against yesterday.)
And yes, things do get channelized in ways to make them more acceptable. Case in point, last year there was a big deal about the first lesbian holiday romance movie on one of the major cable channels. Straight people really loved it, the majority of queer women that I know hated it. Largely because it was trying graft a coming out story onto the genre. The set up is one of the women isn’t out to her parents when they go to visit and springs it on her partner on the drive over. The rest of the movie is about her treating her partner “just gals being pals” as she tries to pass for straight, before being coming out at the end. Het people focused on the coming out and unearned happy ending, queer women focus on how awfully she was treating her partner — and how the partner really should’ve end up with another out-and-proud woman.
mrmoshpotato
@Sister Golden Bear: Sparky’s 506 Adventures
Canadian at his off-grid cabin
geg6
@SFBayAreaGal:
I LOVE THAT SHOW!
Ruckus
@Almost Retired:
It wouldn’t be BJ without gratuitous fucking profanity.
bmoak
Pretty much every title/author of graphic novels listed in this thread has been the subject of multiple bans across different states: Maus, Persepolis, works by Gaiman (Sandman, American Gods), Moore (Watchmen, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) and Miller (Dark Knight Returns).
Ruckus
@BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️:
He is.
PJ
If you are into atmospheric speculative fiction, I can recommend AMC+’ Anna. It’s a six-part series set in Sicily after a pandemic has seemingly killed off all adults around the world. (It’s based on a novel that came out in 2015, and production (written and directed by the author of the novel) started before the Covid pandemic.) The titular protagonist must fend for herself and protect her younger brother in a world controlled (to the extent it’s controlled at all) by malignant teenagers directing savage younger children. It’s beautifully shot, and unspurls like a terrifying fairy tale, but always with a fierce hope that Anna carries with herself.
phein63
@raven: The Secret of Roan Inish is a family favorite. We watch it at least once a year with our children (and now grandchildren). Puts them, maybe not in direct touch, but at least tangentially in touch with their Kelly ancestors.
FelonyGovt
@Sister Golden Bear: Ouch, that movie you referred to reminds me of my daughter’s relationship some years ago with a woman who was not out to her very religious parents. It broke my heart that my out and proud daughter had to pretend to be “just friends” with this person she was living with.
phein63
@mrmoshpotato: You mean, the Denzel Washington movie? Directed by Spike Lee, with Jodie Foster, Clive Owen, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, etc? That “Inside Man” movie? Very much an annual pizza-and-drinks movie at our house. We tried the series with Stanley Tucci and David Tennant, but the Tennant character is just too frickin’ stupid to be believed.
Lady WereBear
@Sister Golden Bear: I’ve found channels on Youtube that are perfect for that kind of viewing. A guilty pleasure is Mack Attack, where he bashes different kinds of scams. He’s very funny.
kalakal
@James E Powell: Britbox
mrmoshpotato
@phein63:
Yes. Haven’t seen it since it was released. Was thinking Will Smith.
RSA
@Brachiator: Thanks! I would never have come across Persepolis on my own. Now in my shopping cart.
Martin
Right, but I guess that’s what I’m getting at. The only reason Twitter enabled that is that the LGBTQ community is not *in a particularly context* as marginalized as they think. I mean, General Mills is not a charitable organization. They put a gay couple in a Cheerios commercial because there was more money in appealing to the gay community than they would lose from the conservative community. It’s a straight economic trade, and the LGBTQ community wins that trade. See Subaru marketing. See acceptance by Twitter moderation policy.
You still were only allowed to participate in that space because @jack or someone around him, allowed it. It’s still *much* better than NBC, because you don’t need Twitters *explicit* permission to publish, but you do need their implicit permission. So yes, I agree, Twitter was good in that way. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t equally good or better ways of doing that. I mean, the weakness of Twitter as a space is that you are now completely dependent on *one guy* maintaining that implicit permission. And I think you’ll keep that permission, but I also think he’ll give implicit permission to a whole other group of people to harass you and drive you off. And I think you’ll have them outnumbered, but I don’t think you’ll be willing to match violence with violence. But either way, it’s entirely his whim, and nothing more.
That’s one of the benefits of a place like Mastodon, where the server can be run by your community, moderated by your community, and where you can control who can engage in your community. You can also choose how that community is funded – ads, patreon, wealthy benefactor, etc. The downside is that reaching other communities may be harder to do. If that difficulty is high enough, then you get a greater chance to tell stories to your community (worthwhile!) but you might lose the chance to get others to hear the stories about why your community should be accepted.
Is ‘A Very Lesbian Christmas’ (please, god, tell me that was the title) valuable for pulling the rest of us along even though it’s not telling a honest story as the community would assess it? I don’t know. Today I don’t think so, but I’m not terribly confident of that. But I don’t want to engage in that story for that reason. I want the honest story, even if it’s uncomfortable for me to hear it or even to understand it. I can’t claim to be great at it. But I do try. I think we should actively try.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Sister Golden Bear: nothing can be more alien than Chinese TV. I recommend you sign up for Viki.com & watch Word of Honor featuring a gay martial arts/royal couple who have lots and lots of issues, not one of them being gay. Pure escapism from our cultural pint of view, at least.
otherwise, take care of yourself
kalakal
@Sister Golden Bear: So sorry to hear about your rough day. The Repair Shop on Roku is mindlessly soothing and strangely hypnotic. Which is not something I ever thought I’d say about watching antique restoration
J R in WV
Very late to this thread, but Wife and I went out this evening for the first time since last May (for our 51st anniversary last spring). After a quick drink (for Wife, I was driving) and snack at a “modern Japanese” restaurant, we went to the movie theater.
“She Said” was on the big screen, besides us there was a single woman in the back and another couple on our row… so pretty safe virus wise. The film was GREAT! it’s about two young women investigative reporters at the FTNYT, who are assigned to investigate Miramar Films CEO Harvey Weinstein and his habit of sexual attacks on employees and movie stars.
Gripping, no expense spared, shot on location in England, NYC, and LA. A great show. Lots of tension building to a great climax, with an editor clicking a big purple PUBLISH button on his computer. Now I’m going to read the thread.
RaflW
We had Thanksgiving, Mark I today. BF found a nice precooked turkey breast that had no crap ingredients, and we had fresh green beans, carrots, mashed potatoes, gravy, gluten free stuffing, GF corn bread, salad, pumpkin and apple pies, GF brownies, and some appetizers too (various fam contributed).
We also played cards, Pictionary and (ugh) Relative Insanity.
Traveling tomorrow so that we get to do most of this sort of deliciousness again this coming Thursday with my side of the family for Thanksgiving, Mark II. Not sure my fam are game players, but I suspect there will be a puzzle. We’re also doing two different tours in/around Charleston, SC where they rented a VRBO for the long weekend.
phein63
@prostratedragon: When I read the instructions on Voltaren, I was a little put off: It’s only for ankles, knees, wrists and elbows, and I’ve been using it with great results on spine, neck and shoulders for years. I can’t possibly have that many years left — I’m way over the expected life-expectancy for post-CABG patients — so I’m built for comfort, not speed, but for you youngsters . . .
phein63
@mrmoshpotato: Watch it again with popcorn and a nice glass of wine, and enjoy the side performances.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
Speaking of Prime, a short rant…
I’m buying a new camera, a Sony A7iv. I was going to buy it on Amazon, may still, but their shipping with Prime has become much less efficient than it used to be. It used to be 2 day shipping, now if I were to order the camera today, it would arrive Tuesday the 29th. This is an item that is listed as “In Stock”. Do I live in the boonies? No, I live a 1/2 mile from a fucking Amazon distribution center. Why the fuck does it take over a week to get a fucking camera delivered, it’s worse if I have it sent to their 4 Star store in Americana, also a 1/2 mile away in the other direction. I’m finished with Prime. I’ll probably get the camera from a local camera store.
My job is also pissing me off…
If all goes well with the deliveries going out, I’m ignored, if one thing is not done it’s a crime against humanity(the opener will cry to the morning managers). I may ask to move back to 1 to 10pm, I’m really tired of the BS.
billcinsd
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: In the boonies it’s more like 1-2 weeks for the 2-Day prime. It used to be 3-5 days
mrmoshpotato
@phein63: Would beer or a mixed drink work as well? 😁
James E Powell
@zhena gogolia:
@kalakal:
Thank you. Sherlock Holmes stories were among my earliest reading addictions. I look forward to these.
WaterGirl
@Old School: Yes. :-(
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Brachiator: Oh yes, they were all evil and ruthless. Just, they never come across as if you sat down next to them a train you would immediately want to move because there is something visibly creepy about then, like Zuckerburg and Musk.
thruppence
If you have older children or don’t mind your inner child, check out Slumberland on Netflix, loosely inspired by the early 20th century comic strip series. Fun seeing Jason Mamoa do comedy. Little sentimental, little weird.
Sister Golden Bear
@Martin: As part of a group that’s been historically shut out, I have a different perspective. As the hoary joke goes, we know the game is rigged, but it’s the only game in town. Yes Mastodon provides the opportunity for safe spaces — but at the cost of being able to reach outside our community and changes minds. If Keffals had stood up to Kiwifarms — a really horrific forum dedicated to doxxing people, in particular trans people, and then harassing them in hopes the victims would commit suicide — nothing would’ve changed. It was only by publicizing it on Twitter that she gained enough broader support to get them shut down, and keep them shut down. We don’t have the privilege that (white) cis het people do, so we’re willing to use the masters’ tools against them.*
Plus I refuse to cede the (sort of) public space without a fight. So I’ll be there until Twitter imploded, I get banned, or so many people leave that it’s a ghost town. Today’s event are a perfect example of how Twitter is useful to us — not just about Club Q, but also stories that the mainstream press ignored, like Proud Boys trying to intimidate a transgender story hour in Denton, TX. Yes, in theory Mastodon could fulfill the same function. But at the moment it’s too fragmented, and too many servers have strong whiffs of white cis-het fragility. For fuck’s sake, being expected to post content warning about anything having to do with the attacks on trans people is more challenging than dealing with Twitter trolls.
*FWIW’s Audre Lourde’s quote has long been taken out of context to mean the opposite of what she actually meant.
I don’t know either what effect the “Happiest Season” (2020) has had. The thing is…. we lesbians didn’t want “the honest story” — among other reasons painful coming out stories have been done to death — we just wanted the same sort sappy holiday rom-com that straight folks have had forever. Just one.
Martin
@Sister Golden Bear: Thanks for that perspective. I appreciate it.
So, I don’t know what to do here. I don’t want to be on Twitter because, honestly, it feels like more harm than good for me to be there. I actually seem to have a larger audience on Mastodon because I don’t feel like I’m fighting an algorithm. People seem to engage more there. I have more conversations there. Maybe that’s just me, though. Maybe it’s just there’s less in the timeline everyone wants to scream at.
And to be clear, to me an ‘honest story’ is a movie that you think is a sappy holiday rom-com, rather than a story that someone like me thinks is a sappy holiday rom-com that you would like. That’s all.
Steeplejack
@James E Powell, @zhena gogolia:
Jeremy Brett is the definitive Holmes, and the adaptations are remarkably faithful to the original stories. A great series that holds up very well.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@prostratedragon:
@Yutsano: Thank you!!
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Sister Golden Bear: YouTube has tons of them. They can be relaxing.
UncleEbeneezer
@Sister Golden Bear: Also recommend channels like Brucke and LiZiQi: for watching some very handy people build cool stuff in a gorgeous environment.
Nancy
@raven:
Oh, dear, I’m a bit squeee-mish.
Nancy
@delphinium:
I have to be careful with how dark the Mysteries are. Because they are so well done, they get to me if I can’t attain emotional distance.
I grew up in the Vietnam War era, when TV news showed images of the war every night. I was often distraught, picturing people I knew, some of whom didn’t return. I think that this affected me.
Or I’m a wimp. :-)
Nancy
@raven:
Again, the wimp factor kicks in, but I may someday feel able to check out these darker series.
BTW I am so happy when someone replies to my comments. It’s like a conversation with my friends.
Nancy
@UncleEbeneezer:
Exactly. Looks good but no substance and toxic once he opens his mouth. And that’s probably the intent of this character.
The Lodger
@phein63: Dumbest Tennant character I’ve ever seen.
“I’m a fucking vicar.”