Media Update 7/30/2015

The Penguins of Madagascar

I did see one and a half Madagascar movies but I never really liked them. It felt like they weren’t written for me and also they had David Schwimmer in them. However, those movies did produce a pretty enjoyable spin-off tv show starring the penguins. The show was surprisingly funny which was a bit of a surprise for a spin-off of something I didn’t really like in the first place. Anyway, the movie is pretty wacky and ends up being non-stop action. However, there’s a lot of clever humor and ballsy puns thrown in that make the movie pretty enjoyable. I’m a little sorry they didn’t get the voice actors from the show but it’s worth a look if you’re looking for something to watch.

 

Contemporary Arts Theater Festival

This is my first year attending shows at the Contemporary Arts Theater Festival which is held at Shepherd University. So far I attended two shows and they were both really good.

The first show was We Are Pussy Riot which was definitely an eye opener. I am definitely guilty of following the news of Pussy Riot extremely loosely and then giving up on the story when they showed up on Colbert. The show was really informative about what exactly I was missing from the story. The acting was excellent and you really got a feel for what the Russian justice system must be like. Sometimes the show was funny and sometimes it was sad but it was always horrifying. It reminded me that we cannot be complacent in our society.

The other show was The Whole Catastrophe which was more Neil Simon-like about a linguist/confirmed bachelor who gets tapped to be a live-in marriage counselor. It was a very funny and thoughtful piece about love, communication and the mistakes we make. It had a lot to say about suburban life, family, academia and pop psychology. One surreal thing about this show was that it shared a few actors with We Are Pussy Riot in completely different roles.

I would reccomend seeing both of these and probably any of the other shows. There’s still a few days left in the festival so if you’re in the area, check it out.

 

Radio Dead Air

I love the radio. I used to listen to it a lot more before Youtube and podcasts took over the time I spent in the car listening to the radio. I always loved hearing the music. Whether it was old favorites or stuff completely new to me, I loved getting lost in it. However, it was also about the friendly DJ or hosts chatting away. There’s something about the conversations that come out of somebody just sitting down and talking that I always liked. Radio Dead Air is a live internet show from 9 to 2 am every Monday night.

The host, Nash, plays whatever he feels like playing and also plays requests from viewers. He talks a lot about whatever’s going on in his life or in the news. It also includes a live show called What the Fuck is Wrong With You? that is co-hosted by Tara Deenihan where they riff on the news of the weird from the past week. It’s a really calming show to listen to and Nash is dedicated to making every show really good. It’s worth a listen and a watch, even if you just put it on in the background and listen to someone else’s taste in music for a change. This past Monday he even had his 15 year anniversary of doing the show.

 

Chuck

I had actually meant to watch this show a long while ago as my youngest brother went to Stanford just like the main character. The show is kind of dorky but it’s enjoyable enough. Chuck is a big box store employee who gets all of United States intelligence’s secrets beamed into his head. Because he is now the only source for these secrets, he is employed as an asset for the CIA and NSA. Zachary Levi is pretty good as Chuck and he often reacts as I would if I were suddenly a secret agent. However, he mugs a lot which hopefully they cut down on. Yvonne Strahvoski is great as his CIA handler as she kicks a lot of butt while being charming and insightful. Adam Baldwin is great as Chuck’s NSA bodyguard because at this point he was used to playing amusing jerks. The rest of the supporting cast is kind of annoying but hopefully that fades with time. Overall, four episodes in, it’s pretty rocky but a pretty interesting show. I don’t know if I’ll continue to watch it.

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Felix Graham: Osaka Adventure

When the plane touched down at the Osaka International Airport, I eagerly got off and headed through a terminal in a foreign land. I hate flying and the ogre in the seat next to me didn’t make the flight any easier. As soon as he realized I was Aware he talked my ear off about everything under the sun and somethings that weren’t. He was nice enough but I’m anxious enough during a flight. I didn’t need the additional stress.

After a quick trip to baggage claim, I stepped into the sun and got my first lungful of real Japanese air. It was not shockingly different from Baltimore but it was different from Sub Hopkins in all the best ways. I started to look around and I eventually laid eyes on Ren Akiyoshi which was not a good sign. I don’t have anything against Ren but I was expecting his wife and my cousin, May. Her absence meant something was happening because she had talked up and down about how excited she was that I was coming.

This was supposed to be a short vacation before I settled down to establish a practice in Columbia. I had found office space and Grace Testa had agreed to be my assistant. Even now she was setting up the office and getting everything in place for our grand opening. Ever since my Legendary epiphany in Sub Hopkins I was eager to get things started but May and her husband were legends too and wanted to see me. They had paid for the ticket so there was no way I could say no. Besides, I like visiting family.

“Greetings, Felix. How was your flight?” Ren asked, a sly little smile on his face. Ren was hard to read sometimes but May always said he was a good guy.

“It was a flight. It’s common knowledge I don’t like flying. Why do you always talk like that, Ren?” He had intentionally pushed a few buttons but I couldn’t help but smile.

“In an exagerrated manner? It amuses me. Shall we go to the car?”

“Good idea. So what’s going on? What’s the crisis?” I asked. To his credit, Ren didn’t break stride. He did wait until we had slipped into his car to respond.

“The Tengu have taken three people hostage. They also ignited a warehouse and injured a lot of people.”

“Wow. Where do we start?”

“We will meet up with May. She has arrived on the scene and is trying to communicate with the local Sentinel at the warehouse. Also, she was looking forward to seeing you.”

* * *

When we pulled up in front of the smoldering remains of the warehouse, May was standing on the hood of a car and staring off into the distance. Even when we were little, we always called her Wonder Woman. During family vacations, she was almost always the leader of the kids. There she was, looking like the cover of comic book with a four foot broad sword hanging on her back. She grinned and deactivated her armor as she jumped down and gave me a hug.

“Felix! You’re finally here! Ready to help us kick some ass?” She said with a smile.

“Well, it’s kind of my first time with field work but I go where I’m needed.”

She smiled a thousand watt smile. “I’m glad you were needed here.”

“So, is the sentinel going to let us see the crime scene?”

“Yes, actually, but Ren is already inside doing that.”

I looked around and truly Ren had disappeared. “It must be nice being a ninja.”

“I think you’ll find it’s even nicer having one on your team. Come on, let’s grab a cup of coffee and we’ll check out the victims, Doctor.”

The Key Pt. 9

They got into Robin’s car and the mood was tense as they drove off into the night. The silence was uncomfortable as R shifted in his seat to get comfortable. The car was just a little bit small to fit his legs correctly but he was managing. He had thrown his coat in the backseat to gain a little more space. Robin didn’t want to look over at the muscles showing through his shirt. She was afraid she might start ogling him again. She was too determined, too focused on the task at hand to risk distraction. This put her in a bad mood again but it was easier to be angry than scared.

“Where are we going?” R finally asked after twelve blocks. He was interrupting the smooth hum of the street. It was only then that Robin realized she had caught nine greenlights in a row. Weird.

“I have no clue. I need answers.” She said, hopefully shutting down conversation.

“Have you thought about how all the weird stuff always seems to find you? Maybe we could use that to our advantage?”

A red light caused Robin to stop the car and she took the opportunity to turn and look at R. “I’m not going to bother with sarcasm. I’m too tired. If your solution is to sit somewhere and wait then I can’t do it. I can’t sit back, do nothing and wait for bad things to happen to me. That’s I’ve done this whole time. I tried to ignore blackouts and weird tattoos with my shitty waitress jobb. You know what? I want that shitty waitress job and a quiet life and I’m going to get it if it kills me.”

The car was silent again except for the heavy breathing coming from Robin. R watched her while her eyes went back to the road. Right on cue the light changed to green and the silence returned for a while.

“Feel better?” R asked.

Robin took a deep breath as she thought about it. “Yeah. A little.”

“So what’s the plan?”

“We’re heading to my place. That’s where the Doll was. If I’m supposed to turn people back, it’s as good a place as any to find another victim of whatever this is.”

There was a sudden grinding noise underneat them and the car slowed to a very loud stop. They were both out of the car immediately. The car’s tires and wheels looked like they had been chewed up in a giant lawnmower.

“What the hell happened?!” Robin screamed. “Whatever it is, it owes me a car!”

Before R could respond, all of the streetlights started to go out and all the lights in the building around them. All around them was darkness except for the headlights on Robin’s car.

“I think we have more important things to worry about.” R said as he pulled his coat and gun from the backseat.

Anger gave way to fear for Robin as she tried to peer into the darkness around them. Just like the night before she could sense something big moving out there but she could not see it. It stayed just outside the limits of the headlights. In fact, it felt like several things and they felt very large. She had a feeling that she shouldn’t look but she had to. She kept peering into the darkness and felt both frustrated and relieved that she didn’t see anything. She looked over at R who was point his gun into the darkness. What a fool. He had no idea how pointless that was.

Suddenly something heavy landed on top of the car and splinters of plastic and glass flew everywhere. R and Robin shielded their eyes and looked back but neither of them could see anything. The headlights had gone out. Robin could hear the car being slowly crushed. He heart started to hammer in her chest. She trembled, shook and then she bolted. She ran through the darkness without any idea where she was going.

Jem and the Holograms: An Adaptation

I’ve been thinking about the uproar over the upcoming Gem and the Holograms movie. I recently watched a few episodes so I feel I have a little more insight into the issue at hand. I realize that a few episodes do not make me an expert. I also realize that I don’t really have a dog in this fight as I claim no ownership since the show was absent from my childhood. If you page through my blog you may notice that I have discussed the top of adaptations before. My philosophy concerning adaptations is that as long as it’s a good movie then I can chalk any differences to a multiverse explanation. It’s an easy mental note to make and I find multiverse theories fun and exciting.

The other night I was thinking about live action adaptations of popular cartoons. I realized I have seen quite a few of them. They are a strange animal and they are a weird choice for a studio to make. I think it’s especially the case since reintroducing these shows again as cartoons has been very successful. My Little Pony, Transformers, GI Joe, Pound Puppies and probably even more have produced successful cartoon shows in the present day. Still, studios really want to make live-action adaptations. Why? It makes a lot of money by utilizing the combined might of nostalgia and star power usually.

I don’t know how Jem and the Holograms is going to work out but there is hope. Let’s look at two examples from the past.

Scooby Doo

I watched the hell out of Scooby Doo when I was a kid even though all of the episodes were made before I was born. The show was hokey, cheaply made and it heavily relied on a formula that they always followed. Even the longest episode wasn’t longer than an hour. The characters always returned to the status quo at the beginning of each episode as the teenagers rattled along in their van from mystery to mystery. The show never really changed but it remained popular. I’m ignoring Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby Doo because everybody else seems to be ignoring it.

When the live action movie was released, they approached it in a curious way. They kept the archetypes that they had created but they also allowed the characters to grow. Instead of seeing the characters as they were on the show, we saw them at a later point in their life after some personal growth. It actually freed them up to not follow the formula exactly which was a more interesting choice. They also made the supernatural threats real instead of fake like they had been before. I thought it was a very entertaining movie although part of that was the good actors they chose. It was kind of like being told about a unicorn and going to look for it but at the same time expecting a cat with a horn glued to its head. Instead, you find a horse with a horn glued to its head. At first your disappointed but then you remember unicorns aren’t real.

Josie and the Pussycats

This movie is a much more relevant example as it was also a show about a band comprised of female characters. However, like Scooby Doo, they also solved mysteries as they travelled from gig to gig. They used the same cheap animation tricks but had the benefit of catchy music and Archie-like characters. The theme song remains a major ear worm for me and I held kind of a soft spot in my heart for Josie and the Pussycats.

The live action movie took an even more radical approach to the source material than Scooby Doo had. They updated the band to a nineties attitude and updated the music to reflect that. They cast popular young starlets (including the excellent Rosario Dawson) and set about making a movie very different from the show. The movie ended up being suprisingly good as it used a lot more satire and parody than the Scooby Doo movie. There is a lot of commentary on the recording industry and fame in general that makes a lot of sense. The movie ends up being smarter than it looks and is definitely worth a watch. It may not hold up as well as I think because I haven’t seen it in over a decade now.
So, will Jem and the Holograms be any good when it comes out? I’d actually held off watching the trailer until right now. Hold on for a sec while I watch it.

Wow, really? The movie looks fairly mediocre really. It has very little to do with the show, that’s for sure. I can understand the hate from fans now. The movie looks different enough that they could have called it anything but decided to bank on the Jem and the Holograms name. Again, I’m not really outraged because I was never a fan. Still, I’m very confused. The show had sci-fi elements to it and they had noble reasons for seeking fame and fortune and none of that is in the trailer. It’s definitely not a movie I’m going to see. I’ll be interested to see how it does in the box office though as they may have made a miscalculation or maybe not. There are enough young people who never saw the show who will love this movie. At least, that’s what I think.

Media Update 7/23/2015

Mr. Peabody and Sherman

I remember watching Rocky and Bullwinkle reruns when I was a kid along with my brothers. I never cared for Rocky and Bullwinkle as much as the eventual spin-off Mr. Peabody’s Improbable History. Each short was a (mostly) accurate journey through world history, a subject that I’ve always enjoyed. The movie is an update of the cartoon shorts. Peabody is a talking dog with genius level intellect and encyclopedic knowledge. He takes his adopted human son, Sherman, through history to teach him lessons. Just like the show, the historical figures are depicted as silly while still being accurate enough about their place in history.

The movie was actually way better than I expected. It was funny, touching and well-written and well-acted. What was originally a cute story about history became a coming of age story and also a tale about coming to terms with who you really are. I definitely recommend it to animated movie fans.

 

Jem and the Holograms

Wow. Just wow. I decided to check this cartoon out because it popped up on Netflix, I had never seen it and there’s a lot of noise about the upcoming movie adaptation. When I was growing up, Jem and the Holograms were definitely around but it was not spoken of in my circle of friends. In the eighties and early nineties there was definitely a gender barrier and honestly it wasn’t something I was interested in. I’m definitely in the right frame of mind now. The show is really a mess but I think that this quirkiness is really funny sometimes. The show’s pacing is weird, the rotoscoped animation is surreal and the plots are super predictable but it’s an eighties kids show which somehow excuses a lot. The show is over the top all the time and follows a music group trying to gain success in order to support an orphanage. It has at least two music videos per episode and honestly they’re all kind of catchy. I can’t say I would recommend watching this but why not check out an episode or three like I did?

 

Inside Out

I finally got out to the movie theater. Of course, I was the only adult who attended without a kid or three in tow. The movie follows the exploits of emotions who live in an 11 year old girl’s head and guide her through life. I went in expecting it to be really good as about 90% of Pixar’s movies are really, really awesome. I was definitely not disappointed. Even with little kids making a lot of noise all around me, I really enjoyed the movie. It was smart and funny and full of jokes that the whole family could enjoy. The movie also delivered a lot of heavy emotional body blows which has become a Pixar trademark. I really don’t want to give anything away but while this wasn’t the best Pixar movie ever, it was miles above most animated movies. Amy Poehler in particular surprised me by how good her acting was. Definitely go see it if you like animated movies or you have a kid.

 

Jurrasic World

I walked right out of Inside Out and right into a different theater to check out Jurassic World. I have loved the franchise since the first movie was released back in the nineties. While other people crapped all over the sequels, I really liked them although I readily admit that they could have been better. The first was always the best as it blended humor, wonder and horror pretty close to perfectly. I think that this installment brought a lot of that back. It especially brought back the horror for me as there were several spots where a knot tightened in my stomach. Chris Pratt was a great choice for lead and Bryce Dallas Howard worked with him very well. I was actually pretty shocked that the child actors weren’t bad, in fact they were the best we’ve seen in a Jurrasic Park movie. The effects are very close to perfect and I got lost in the sci-fi world of the franchise yet again. I would recommend seeing this one as well.
In Other News:
– The second season of Bojack Horseman is excellent so far (3 episodes in)
– I’ve watched more Garfunkel and Oates and it gets even better (5 episodes in)
– Ditto for the Vampire Diaries (8 episodes in)
– And again with Boston Legal (12 episodes in)

Dr. Felix Graham

We’re just starting a new campaign in a new system and a new setting.  It’s called Aeternal Legends and it’s available on Drive-Thru RPG.  Up until now, I’ve definitely been in control of combat characters so I thought it was time for something new. This is a world where only a percentage of the world can see the supernatural and a percentage of that percentage are born heroes called Legends.  When you’re a Legend, your path is clearer and problems that need solving always seem to be placed at your feet.

*    *    *

My name is Felix Graham but that’s not where this story starts. I wanted to do as little in life as I could get away with. My career goals began and ended with the new comic book store in the neighborhood. Instead of heading off to college with everybody else, I screwed around a bit first. I was happy with my first girlfriend, Kathryn, and I had snagged a job that let me read all day.

It was nearly a year later when my little sister Olly got hit by a car and entered into a coma. Obviously, my family was devastated and I was shaken out of my comfortable little life. Any time that I wasn’t at the store, I was sitting with my sister until visiting hours ended. Kathryn left for a job opportunity and we broke up shortly after. I regret it but I was so caught up with my family that I at least should have ended that better.

I can recall the moment everything changed vividly, six months later. I had fallen asleep in that same chair as always and my folks were at work. I woke up with exhausted eyes and I thought I saw shadows looming over my sister. To this day, I don’t know if it was real or not but I stood and saw a light shining from my chest and the shadows were washed away.

I woke up suddenly and I was back in the same chair as if I had never left it. My sister was sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes. She shot me a grateful but confused smile. She was cured. Eventually, after calling my parents and the doctors I went to get everybody something to drink. That’s when I realized how open my eyes were.

I nearly ran into a nurse who glowed with saintly light. As I stumbled back I saw so many strange and wonderful things. It was like They Live without the sunglasses as I stumbled through the hospital in a panic. If my uncle Drew hadn’t just arrived I probably would have made more of a spectacle of myself. He confirmed that I hadn’t lost my mind and talked and laid out how the aware world worked.

Uncle Drew told me that he thought I had taken the first step or two onto a new path and I agreed. I had been impressed with the doctors and nurses that had tended to my sister and I made that my new mission in the strange new world I had entered. I managed to get into Towson University without much trouble. While I studied Pre-Med, I learned more about the aware world from anyone I could get talking but especially Uncle Drew.

After that, I left the borders of Maryland for the first time when I got into the Medical School at the University of Pittsburgh. The work was demanding but I kept my head down and studied hard like a man on a mission. There was darkness out there. I remembered those shadows swarming my sister and even if they were just a metaphor, shadows need to be shown the light. I graduated and recited the Declaration of Geneva along with all my fellow graduates. Of course, I silently edited it to include the other Clades.

I went back home for a visit where I got a letter explaining how I could further my medical training at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. I was fully licensed but I was curious about this opportunity at one of the best hospitals in the world. I packed my bags once again and headed into the big city. My contact, Dr. Oyama, immediately corrected my assumptions about why I was there. I was not doing a residency at Johns Hopkins. I was instead doing it at Sub-Hopkins, an interstice under the famous hospital. It turned out to be a very brutal but rewarding experience, treating an aware population in a dimension below Baltimore.

Three years later I had become comfortable at Sub-Hopkins and much more experienced with treating conditions unique to the aware population. I was called out of bed to the emergency room to help out with a huge disaster. They carted in a Sentinel and three Legends who were heavily damaged. There had been a dragon loose in Cockeysville although it would later be called a gas leak. Two of them were still smoking when they arrived.

We worked all night but we still lost all but one Legend. As I checked her pulse in the morning, I felt like everything was suddenly clear again. If someone like me had been there, maybe they would have made it. They would have at least been more stable when they reached the hospital. No. Not someone like me. Me. I should have been there. I am a Legend. I tendered my resignation with the hospital immediately.

I had to get topside and into a better position to get where I’m needed. Maybe if I started my own practice I could get away for adventures. Maybe somewhere quiet but nearby. Somewhere like Columbia maybe?

Media Update 7/16/15

Bob’s Burgers

I binge watched the entire first season this week because I was hooked practically right away. The humor is enjoyably low key when compared to shows like Family Guy and The Simpsons which went off the rails long ago. For a cartoon sitcom, the characters are pretty rounded and complicated. Usually characters like these are more one note. In Bob’s Burgers, sometimes Bob is wrong but any character can be the cause of the dilemma that must be fixed. The antagonists are sometimes friendly and the protagonists are sometimes villainous. The jokes have all made me at least smile and the show is very relateable. Not only that but one of the staff writers is named Steven Davis too! I definitely recommend it.

 

Grades – King (Music Video)

Wow, this was amazing. Music videos are often really fun because they have almost nothing to do with the actual song. I stumbled on this music video through Starline Hodges and I really loved it. I love that it hits buttons in me associated with anime and video games. The little girl is such a great dancer as well. The music isn’t exactly my thing but I like a good rythym and the rest of it is pretty good too.

 

High Anxiety

I love Mel Brooks movies and I have seen most of his movies but I realize that I haven’t seen all of his movies. I missed High Anxiety as it was not one of the movies my friends and I rented. I wish I hadn’t missed it because it might just be near the top of my favorite of his movies. Like most of his films, the movie is a sort of parody. This one is a general parody of Alfred Hitchcock suspense films. Many of the shots, gags and plot points are taken straight out of movies like The Birds, Psycho and North by Northwest. It employs the usual quirky, absurd humor that Mel Brooks uses but this one feels a little more subdued. It’s a little more down to earth thanks to the Hitchcock feel to it and that actually makes the Mel Brooks moments even more surreal. I definitely suggest this one.

Video Games

Like a lot of people, I was recently shocked by the death of Satoru Iwata. He was the president and CEO of Nintendo and an Executive Producer on a lot of games. I think I’ve mentioned it here before but my first experience with video games was watching somebody play the Atari. However, the first system I played was the Nintendo Entertainment System. The original dull gray box with rectangle controllers. I was a console gamer from that point forward mostly because I never had a high performance computer to play to many things on PC.

I’ve been thinking about gaming and gaming culture for a while now. Video games seem very different from when I was just starting out but also the same. Massive improvements in technology have created a diversity in games that was unthinkable years ago. I think it has led a lot of people to play games that never would have before and I think that’s awesome.

When I played Nintendo games way back in the day they were so hard. The graphics were simple so back then it was pure gameplay. There are a lot of people that cling to that version of gaming. They don’t care about the story, they don’t want cutscenes or text. I don’t really look back on this period of gaming with great fondness. At the time I played these games relentlessly but I think I can count on one hand the games that I finished. I played the hell out of games like Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Brothers, and Bubble Bobble. However games like Contra and Bart Vs. The Space Mutants made me want to throw the controller through the screen.

Eventually, video games with more complicated stories showed up. Up until that point, all of a game’s story was in the manual or on television or in a movie. The first game I remember playing that had real story to it was Pokemon Red but it still wasn’t much. Then I played Final Fantasy VII which was my first game with a real story in the game. It was also my first game with real cutscenes and dialogue and more rounded characters. It was also the first game I played where you could make choices that mattered and a whole world to explore.

My eyes were really opened up to what games could be. It wasn’t just the advances in graphics and sound but there was more writing and character development involved. Now when my character died, I was more angry at the enemies than I was at the game. So far games had only evoked anger and joy but with this new wave of games came all sorts of emotions. When I reached that final boss and gave him everything I had, I felt a much bigger emotional release when I landed that final blow. When one of my companions died I felt bad and outraged at the enemy for doing such evil things.

Now I know some people don’t care about all of that. It all comes down to gameplay vs. story and the argument can be made for either or both. I happen to love a game with excellent gameplay but I often need a story too as motivation to play. I know there are people who are unwilling or unable to identify with their avatar in the game and are just in it for the challenge of the game. I can respect that but I’ve always needed some sort of narrative even if I have to make it up myself. This makes games with RPG elements in them among my favorite games and also any game with a strong story.

Please look foward to a follow up to this when I do a Top 11 Favorite Video Games where I’ll be able to give further examples.

Media Update 7/9/15

Kung Fu Hustle

I initially started watching this because it is recommended reading for the new tabletop gaming world I’m creating a character for. Once I was about two minutes in I realized that I had made the right choice. A few minutes later and I had the biggest grin on my face. I wrote earlier about City Under Siege and I wonder again why it took me this long to find martial arts films like these. They seamlessly blend comedy, drama and action together. This one was ultra violent but a lot of the time it was like if you took Superman, Looney Tunes and Mortal Kombat and threw it all in a blender. It was really funny but at the same time certain parts made me really feel for the silly characters. I don’t want to spoil anything about the movie because there are so many surprises that made my head spin but also somehow made sense. It so definitely try this one if you can stomach violence and you aren’t too uptight.

 

The Vampire Diaries

This is a show that has been around for ages. I’m not going to lie, I watched the first episode of this for a girl. I told her I would check it out and I’m really not afraid to try new things so I thought what’s the harm? It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, it really wasn’t bad at all. There’s a lot going on in the show that I like. Two immortal brothers, one good and one evil. A girl between them who is a dead ringer for a woman they knew centuries ago and is probably an ancestor or something. The non-supernatural elements were pretty good even though there were a few cringe-inducing moments due to early onset Twilight Disease but I chalk that up to playing to the CW crowd. Even shows like Arrow and Flash are guilty of that somewhat. I think I could actually stand to watch a few more episodes and see where the plot goes.

 

In a World…

I had been eyeing this title in the Netflix menu for months but I’m glad I didn’t jump on it right away because I just watched it with my mom. This movie covers the competitive, dog-eat-dog world of voice acting but it is also a story about family and finding yourself. There are tons of movies that do not get a big theater release and instead are more or less quietly released to Netflix, Amazon and other similar outlets. It’s so easy to overlook these movies in a flood of more mediocre offerings. This movie was worth your time. The dialogue was fast and snappy and the characters were relateable, endearing and hilarious. Lake Bell stars in this movie and also wrote and directed it and it is definitely a labor of love. She gathered a great cast with a lot of funny people like Demetri Martin, Nick Offerman, Rob Cordry and Ken Marino along with a stellar cast of people I hadn’t really seen before. If you have Netflix this only a few clicks away and well worth it.

Tumblr

I’ve heard a lot of people get down on Tumblr because it’s very political and full of feminists.  Awesome!  That’s where I’ll put all of my political and feminist stuff!  I have had a Tumblr for a while but I realize I have never linked it here.  I mostly use it to repost things I agree with or amuse me but I think I might start putting short thoughts on there.  The longer form stuff and all of the stuff that is mine and only mine will stay here just as it has always been.  If I figure out a way to auto blog stuff over there then I will do that as well.  Anyway, here’s the link.

My Tumblr Blog