WTF- I take a couple days off the website and Mistermix and his wife are hitting raves? YOLO, as the kids say. Maybe he’ll send us some fancy pics from coachella and burning man.
In other news, I have just been super busy with work work which is different from just work in that the former is for an organization and the latter is just shit I have to do to keep the house from collapsing on me and from Audrey in the backyard taking over. I apparently am getting more done at my job than the fucking house Republicans, who are dead set on letting Putin win and fucking Ukraine.
In other news, Netanyahu is still doing his level best to drag us into a war with Iran, something he has been trying to do since he was sabotaging the Iran deal a decade or more ago. At some point, we are going to have to decide to do something about Israel. Personally, I would have cut off all military a while back, and at the very least put some conditions on it- which they would have summarily ignored, and then I would have to do something more drastic. But this shit can not go on forever.
I’m starting to see the re-emergence of Trump stickers and paraphernalia around here, but not as much. Just the ones who do have something in their yard have like 40 things. The nutters are fully invested. He’ll win WV by 70%, and there are a number of straight up fascists running as “constitutional conservatives” in these here parts, and they’ll probably win, too. All of this is making my eventual exit from West Virginia easier.
Back to the last few episodes of Black Sails. I think I might let Fallout marinate for a little bit before I watch it
Martin
Heard Fallout is pretty good, against my expectations. Video game adaptations don’t really make a lot of sense as a concept.
bbleh
Let’s see who gets out first. Targeting 1 June but that’s optimistic.
More than the average share of cultists here, but I think there’s also a big chunk who don’t know WTF and they’re just going along with the shouters or “playing it safe.”
It’s funny though, when I make snarky remarks about TIFG’s lies in, say, the supermarket (fortunately I look like maybe not the best person to mess with), I always get a few bright, slightly ornery smiles, often from older women, and routinely from younger folks, eg cashiers. I agree about the 70%, but the 30% aren’t just rolling over.
J.
Netanyahu and his supporters are awful in the same or similar way that Trump and his supporters are. However, there are a lot of people in Israel who don’t support Netanyahu and his policies and want him out and don’t deserve to be bombed out of existence, which is what Iran and pick your Middle East terrorist organization will do the second the U.S. stops supporting Israel. Praying Israel gets rid of Netanyahu before it’s too late; ditto Trump going down in flames here.
dmsilev
Re: the Trump fanatics, the Post has a big article up about those who ‘invested’ in Truth Social and of course are in process of losing their shirts. Not at all surprisingly , they all Still Believe.
dmsilev
@Martin: How dare you impugn that cinematic classic Wing Commander!
NetheadJay
Heard from a good friend that Fallout is better than expected. But I’m with you, gonna let it sit for a bit.
MattF
@dmsilev: Investing in Truth Social is a test of faith. And Trump is well aware of that. Reports are that the last half hour or so of his recent rallies are straight out of evangelical revivals— although without the baptism and rebirth bits.
dmsilev
@MattF: I think the right term is ‘affinity scam’. Multi-level marketers targeting Mormon communities and so forth.
Gin & Tonic
The level of drone and missile attacks directed at Israel, that has all the talking heads and “serious” Washington so up in arms, has been daily life in Ukraine for two years. Ukrainians are not blind, and see the contrast.
Shalimar
@Martin: The amount spent making video games now is far higher than the amount spent making movies, including to the writers of the big-budget titles. I suspect they’re a lot more adaptable now than they used to be.
Shalimar
@Gin & Tonic: The contrast will only get more obvious when Johnson tries to bring a bill to the floor with aid for Israel but not Ukraine.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
Republicans want a war with Iran, but don’t want to take on Russia.
VFX Lurker
I know good video game adaptations are rare, but I’ve heard only good things about The Last of Us. I also enjoyed the Super Mario Bros 2023 film.
I’ve watched the first six episodes of Fallout so far, and it’s a beautiful, weird show. The art direction looks amazeballs.
eclare
Who is Audrey?
Ejoiner
Almost through with Fallout and it is excellent – my wife is not a gamer and was reluctant to pick it up and she loves it. Great production, great characters, good story/mystery, etc. – a bit on the violent side, but with a heavy dose of dark humor that makes it watchable.
Also, just finished “The Gentlemen” on Netflix and I was just gob smacked…eight stunningly fun and frisky episodes. Didn’t have it on my radar, but looooved it :)
Ksmiami
@Baud: ironically we could win a war in Russia and lose handily in Iran…
Jay
@eclare:
Audrey is The Plant from Little Shop of Horrors, aka, The Willow That Is Too Close To The House.
Baud
Trust nothing, but via reddit
eclare
@Jay:
Thank you!
Jay
@Gin & Tonic:
Iran shot in one night, as many drones, cruise and ballistic missiles at Israel in one night, that ruZZia shoots at Ukraine in a week,
not a single one got through because the US, Jordan and Israel shot them all down as they crossed into their engagement zones.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is stretched out of air defenses and NATO doesn’t care that ruZZian missiles and drones cross their airspace to hit Ukraine and Israel provides no support to Ukraine.
kindness
John I think your vote and fanny are more valuable in AZ. Get a move on my man.
NotMax
Any news on how Thurston is adjusting to your absence?
RaflW
I went snowboarding today (spring slush can be super fun in the Rockies), and managed to not think about politics, or Trump, or any of that sh*t for like 5 solid hours. It was bliss.
Now, well, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Kudos to WaterGirl, the numbers over on the right for AZ & NV are looking good!
Lyrebird
Hi JC!
Check out this video from Chef Lan Lam about carmelizing onions faster and having them actually taste good. I immediately thought of you.
Kelly
@Ejoiner: I second “The Gentlemen”. Director Guy Richie working the same vein as “Snatch” and “Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”
RaflW
@Baud: Republicans want to take on the attributes of Russia.
Come to think of it, the way things are going already, the Boeing 737Max isn’t going to prove to be much more reliable than a Tupolev Tu-204.
MazeDancer
Fallout is very, very violent. If you like violence, you’ll love Fallout.
When they started experimenting on dogs in Episode 2, I shut it off.
RaflW
@dmsilev: Okie dude: “I know good and well it’s in Trump’s hands, and he’s got plans,” he said. “I have no doubt it’s going to explode sometime.”
Well, yes. As they say, be careful what you wish for.
Dan B
@RaflW: There have been many scathing front page articles about Boeing in the Seattle Times. I’m loving it. They were a great company until the bean counters.
WaterGirl
@MazeDancer: Uck!
Kay
Jackie
@MattF: Last night he gave his MAGAts a history lesson on The Battle of Gettysburg:
Several people posted their shock, combined with amusement, including one of our favorite Dem representatives:
Read the link to enjoy other comments!😁
Martin
@VFX Lurker: The problem with video game adaptations is that video game are interactive. You have fairly linear stories which you have a very minor ability to influence (Last of Us) and you have world building stories where you have a lot of local influence but no material global influence (Fallout).
But film is a linear medium and any story that would adapt well to it was probably better adapted to print than to video games. So exploring the world of Horizon is appealing, but finding a story that would include Aloy feels disruptive because the point of the games is that *I* get to be the protagonist and *I* get to advance the world narrative. In the case of Fallout, you have this background world and just shove random stories into it. That’s easier to execute, but also kind of misses why people play the games. How many players after emerging from vault 111 *actually* start looking for their son, and how many take this blank canvas and immediately shuffle that to the bottom of the deck? We like the canvas on which Fallout plays out, but are usually ambivalent to the story with NV being the strongest of the lot.
I don’t know how you write Borderlands incorporating both played characters and the world where the played characters story arcs are pretty well established. Either you’re retelling a story I played, or you’re asking me to rewrite the world.
TLOU provides an opportunity to tell the story leading up to this world. Fallout can do the same. Horizon begs for it. Tell the story of the last days of humanity. Those are bits of lore we have from the game but without the story fully being told.
But the underlying problem is that video game storytelling is generally pretty trash and having compelling stories that lead to compelling game play is incredibly hard. So the things that would adapt well to film are usually the things being sacrificed to make the game good.
Jackie
@Jay: I was about to ask who Audrey was, too; going by JC’s description, I was HOPING it was the willow! Otherwise, eeeks!
trollhattan
I take this to mean the willow has acquired a nickname.
Our willow had an intervention by a real arborist last month to the tune of $1600. Those are California dollars so probably a hunnert fiddy in WV dollars.
trollhattan
@Jackie: Jesus Fucking Tapdancing Kombucha-brewing Christ that’s not made up!
God help us all.
Did you know Frederick Douglass nearly won Gettysburg? Really, people are talking about it more all the time lately.
geg6
@eclare:
Gotta be the willow. Maybe it’s so close to the house that it might eat it.
bbleh
@trollhattan: Lee. What a great name, right? Lee. Like heroic-lee. Know what I’m saying? Heroically. And he was heroic, right? Am I right? Heroic Lee. Boy that’s saying something, isn’t it?
An AI could do this sh!t at this point. In fact, probably better. As has been observed widely, he’s mostly a symptom, an accelerant, a parasite. The real problem is in the brains of his followers.
geg6
@Kelly:
That means I won’t be catching it. Guy Ritchie makes disgustingly violent films. Got roped into seeing the two you mentioned and that level of violence is unwatchable for me.
zhena gogolia
@Jackie: You must see Little Shop of Horrors. Audrey is the cannibalistic plant that grows and grows and cries out, “Feed me!” And Seymour has to feed her.
kalakal
@dmsilev:
Always good to come across a fellow
suffererfancatclub
simple line to re-register nym
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jackie: Moskowitz is hilarious.
ETA: My niece’s husband is a docent at the Gettysburg Battlefield. I’ll have to ask him what he thinks about Trump’s babble.
Another Scott
[ Must resist being that guy !! ]
Well, actually, wasn’t Audrey the girlfriend in LSoH? And Audrey II was the plant??
Ack!
Sorry.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jackie
@zhena gogolia: I did see it YEARS AGO, so the name Audrey escaped me. Glad JC “now” has a sense of humor about everyone trying to warn him…😁
marcopolo
I enjoyed Fallout. I played the game(s) so long ago I won’t say I remember them all all that well but the show did a few things right. First, they nailed the dystopian/absurd/dark humor/anti-corporate tone/ambience of the game. Second, they really just dive in and show the world. There’s a lot of lore/history and creatures and things and the show is chock full of it. Third, they gave the three leads compelling/decent character arcs with pretty good writing. Last, everything is woven together really well so while watching you can have aha moments. I think Amazon screwed up a little dropping all eight episodes at once–each one is rich enough that if they’d made them weekly I think they’d have built some interest from week to week with folks opining on what’s going to happen next. In that vein, I’d recommend folks watching it to watch one episode at a time and spread them out a little if you can–and if you can avoid being spoiled by all the stuff that’s out there. Oh, and don’t overthink the stuff happening. It’s a tv show based on a video game where some really absurd/random/wacky stuff happens from time to time. As for the comment about dogs up above, there was a scene where newborn pups were being weighed–I assume to gauge their viability, but I wouldn’t call that experimenting on them. That is not to say that experimenting does not occur in Fallout–in fact, the morality of experimentation is one of the subjects the game explores.
geg6
If anyone is Billy Joel fan, CBS has him doing his 100th sell-out concert during his residency at MSG. It’s live! And amazing. This residency has gone on, once a month for the past ten years. Highly recommend.
Mike in NC
I played a few of the Fallout game franchise on PC, including the one set in Washington DC and the one set in Las Vegas. Watched the first episode of the series on Prime and it was pretty good.
Hoping to turn on the TV tomorrow and seeing Fat Bastard in an orange jumpsuit while trussed up like Hannibal Lechter in “Silence of the Lambs”.
NotMax
@marcopolo
Surprising to learn only recently that Dundee, Scotland is a hotbed of video game design.
dexwood
@MazeDancer: We watched the first episode. So bloody and gory. Found nothing entertaining or captivating in what we saw. We looked at each other after it ended and said “nah, fuck that” let’s find something else.
geg6
“Hoping to turn on the TV tomorrow and seeing Fat Bastard in an orange jumpsuit while trussed up like Hannibal Lechter in “Silence of the Lambs”.
Oh, if only!
Layer8Problem
@geg6: Too sinister. Some kinda weird combination of M. R. James’ “The Ash Tree” and Algernon Blackwood’s “The Willows”. As well as that tree next to the window in Poltergeist. I recommend that Cole move, safety first and all that.
Uncle Cosmo
Just curious, but have you glanced at a map of Eastern Europe recently? I very clearly recall that there is no way Russki “missiles and drones cross NATO airspace to hit Ukraine” unless they’re launched from subs in the North Atlantic. Or unless they are deliberately violating NATO airspace & then making a U-turn to head back across the Ukrainian border before the NATO air defenses can drop them, which seems both wasteful and stupid, even by Putin’s standards, and which I have never heard a single accusation that stuck. (IIRC the rocket that killed a few in eastern Poland was later determined to be a Ukrainian interceptor that crossed the border by accident in pursuit of a target.)
IOW, as distressingly often the case, you seem not to know WTF you’re talking about.
wjca
I rather hope he does. Because once it’s on the floor, it can be amended to put the Ukraine aid back in. Guessing he’s too clueless about how Congress works to rwaluze that.
Jackie
@geg6: THANK YOU!
It’s only live ET, so your heads-up gave me, PT, time to record! We won’t see it until 9 pm PT.
wjca
FTFY
Jay
@Uncle Cosmo:
LMFAO,
https://globalnews.ca/news/10380843/russia-missile-poland-ukraine/
Keep up old man,
Did you know that modern ballistic and cruse missiles, let alone drones, don’t have to fly in a straight line any more?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66727788
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/10/romania-moldova-russia-missiles-ukraine-nato/
https://www.rferl.org/a/moldova-russian-cruise-missiles-air-space-ukraine-attacks/32073258.html
Jay
@Uncle Cosmo:
Keep up old man.
Jackie
Jack Smith strikes again!
Go, Jack, go!
Marc
The most recent incursion of a Russian cruise missile into Polish airspace was in the vicinity of Oserdow, which is due north of Lviv and due south of Belarusian airspace. Cruise missiles (and drones) do not need to fly a straight trajectory from the launch point to the target. Multiple missiles approaching a target from different directions and timed to arrive at the same time makes air defense that more more difficult. When the target is near a border (like Lviv) I suspect the cruise missiles will be programmed with waypoints to stay in allegedly neutral airspace (Belarus) as long as possible, then hug the border with Poland so Ukraine will be hesitant to attempt an intercept. If insufficient waypoints are set (or the Russians just don’t care), a missile can easily cross through Polish airspace with no U-turns required.
wjca
I could see the Poles deciding to shoot down anything that even comes (not all that) close to their airspace. And, if takes to task, respond: “Oops”. Then keep doing it.
Marc
Not an easy choice if it’s a populated region. I suspect there might be a bit of a political issue if Polish civilians are hit by the wreckage (and perhaps intact warhead) of a cruise missile shot down by Polish armed forces or a misfired Polish SAM.
billcinsd
@Uncle Cosmo: You do know that the Iranian drones did not cross US or French air space?
rikyrah
@dmsilev:
The rubes be rubing😒😒😒
Creature_NYC
De-lurking to praise Fallout (never played the game). It had no right to be as good as it was by the end. It came together wonderfully. I applauded.
trnc
@Kay: Thanks! That’s good news.
lowtechcyclist
@Kay:
Republicans who believe in treating others with respect – what a notion!
Seems like an oxymoron these days, but I applaud the effort.
Joelle
@NotMax: Thurston is thriving in AZ. He loves it here. I switched him to a high grade fish kibble and he only eats what I give him. No more open feeding, stealing cat food and ADHD people’s salads. He is looking slimmer and his coat shines like a show pony. He has lots of furniture to claim as his throne, plus cozy blankets to rutt under and what he assumes to be an endless supply of ladies panties to eat the crotch out of and toss with wild abandon on the floor next to the laundry hamper from whence they were pilfered.
Paul in KY
@zhena gogolia: If you are a plant or non-human animal that eats humans, you are not ‘cannibalistic’. :-)
Paul in KY
@Joelle: That sounds great, Joelle! Thank you for giving us an update.
The Lodger
Something tells me the Trumpies are still asking for offerings, though.