What I Watched: Nothing of note – April is a month that has a heavy workload with accompanying hours devoted to it. So, for the next several weeks I’m going to feature shows which I would like to watch but haven’t gotten to yet. If you have watched them, please carry the conversational ball!
The Guardian review: Passenger , confident, atmospheric and packed with creepy realism, this drama – starring Wunmi Mosaku as a copper trapped in a small town – is a convincingly detail-oriented paranormal horror . . . Every kind of anxiety and trepidation is given its due here, from the daughter’s unspoken dread, to the factory owner’s fear of displeasing the masters who are using his place as part of their oozing cargo-smuggling operation, to Jim’s PTSD, to the darker, timeless terrors the woods and their possible ancient and malevolent inhabitants represent. The two episodes (of six) that were available for review keep the mundane and the mystical in nice balance, each one enhancing the potential horror of the other. Alone in the woods, Riya suffers her own flashbacks, too, to some kind of childhood trauma yet to emerge from the shadows . . . Despite that, this is a confident, well-paced and atmospheric series that I hope continues to be as sure‑footed and scary to the end.
What I Read: A Charade of Magic: The complete trilogy by Helen Harper. Harper is a new fave author, but I am slogged down in book two. I don’t much like any of the characters, and perhaps need super simple books to free my mind during such a busy time at work. Here are the blurbs:
Hummingbird: The best way to live in the Mage ruled city of Glasgow is to keep your head down and your mouth closed. That’s not usually a problem for Mairi Wallace. By day she works at a small shop selling tartan and by night she studies to become an apothecary. She knows her place and her limitations. All that changes, however, when her old childhood friend sends her a desperate message seeking her help – and the Mages themselves cross Mairi’s path. Suddenly, remaining unnoticed is no longer an option. There’s more to Mairi than she realises but, if she wants to fulfil her full potential, she’s going to have to fight to stay alive – and only time will tell if she can beat the Mages at their own game. From twisted wynds and tartan shops to a dangerous daemon and the magic infused City Chambers, the future of a nation might lie with one solitary woman.
Nightingale: All across Scotland, the resistance movement is growing in both strength and numbers. For the first time in five generations, the Mages are afraid – and it’s all because of one woman. But Mairi knows where the real power lies and that it is the Mages who maintain control of the country. She has become the poster girl for the resistance and her magic is growing stronger by the day. That doesn’t mean, however, that she has any real chance of succeeding against the might of the Mages. And yet strange things are afoot. Crude runes are appearing all over the country while the Afflicted seem to be changing – and not for the better. The very soul of Scotland may soon be up for grabs. If ever there is a time for a true hero to step forward, this is it.
Red Hawk: Mairi Wallace has faced terrible dangers since she discovered her magical abilities. But she’s never experienced anything as hazardous as this. An unfamiliar peril has arisen and suddenly the Mages are no longer the biggest threat to Scotland’s future. A new King, with the Afflicted hordes at his beck and call, is claiming her country for his own. From the towering battlements at Edinburgh Castle to the sweeping streets of Glasgow, Mairi and her friends are going to have to draw on every scrap of power they have. And if she doesn’t embrace the unthinkable and work with the Mages to save her people, Scotland’s future might prove to be very bleak indeed.
What I Listened To: headed Home by Dead Ghosts; First Song by Swim Deep; and Salience by Jon Notar (a beautiful song).
Thank you for playing Brain Drain! How are you, darling ones? Dearest DeadSplinterites, what’s going on? Please do share with us!
…I think in the end the books are probably better but arguably less digestible so I think the 3 body problem on netflix is a pretty decent job
…& I started fallout…which is a bunch of fun & walton goggins is somehow sort of charming even as a ghoul with a hole in his head where his nose should be
…also…slightly random…but the animated movie “the bad guys”…with overtones of zootopia but with more people & less animals…quite enjoyed that, too?
I too am watching Fallout. As long as the dog doesn’t die I’m good. The actor you mentioned also played a charming bad guy in Justified. Bits of thar character poked through the ghoul.
…temporarily is…like…half-marks?
[…trying to think of that as an anti-spoiler-spoiler…so apologies to anyone who thinks that deserves a flag on the play?]
I do recommend Netflix’s Cold War miniseries. Instead of the triumph of “capitalism”, this takes a look at the dark twisted shit both sides played in the Cold War.
One episode looks at the CIA’s involvement in overthrowing governments. The problem is that CIA director Allen Dulles looked at multinationals interests as the same as US foreign policy interests… much in the exact same way as US gunboat diplomacy (pre Cold War) did to protect the interests of the monied class.
I found it relevant as many of the tactics (skewed polling, questionable editorials, MSM bias against the political oppo, fake 3rd party candidates to draw off votes) are the same we’re seeing being done FOR Trump. As I mentioned earlier, the MSM especially the NYT would be used as the CIA’s mouthpiece.
The monied class and their rat fuckers don’t want to pay (slightly) higher taxes and want to keep their ill gotten gains.
Only problem is that thanks to the internet, fragmentation of the audience has spread out the monied classes resources and abilities. It’s not that easy to blind people (easily) to the truth. Also trust in the MSM is at an all time low. In this case, the right’s clinging to their news bubble has worked against their monied class owners.
Biden is fortunate that his enemies are too busy fighting among themselves to be a cohesive and dangerous oppo (mostly due to their own greed/lust for power.)
Do you like John LeCarré?
Yeah, I read most of his earlier works. Dreary world, but that’s probably what it’s like in the hall of mirrors known as espionage.
So-so. But lovely to see you pop up!
I was unexpectly hospitalized again. In on a Monday, out on a Friday (yesterday.)
What I listened to: I was in the emergency department the entire time, so no bed for me (stop admitting so many people?) The hospital I went to was much more serene so it wasn’t really that bad. Inconclusive results as to cause, but they fixed me up enough so that they released me.
One realization that came to me is a that doctors (I saw about 30, more, including their retinues) love “Groundhog Day.” I was interrogated extensively by all of them, and all the same basic questions. “Are you in pain?” “What brought you to the emergency department?” “When was the first time…?” Etc. I guess doctors are territorial and either they don’t leave notes, or they won’t share, or doctors ignore other doctors’ notes because they are Dr. Salk and their colleagues are carny trash who got their MDs off the back of a matchbook cover.
It’s bad enough out there even with the infighting.
Does it talk about United Fruit? It’s absolutely nuts how the CIA colluded with them so much just to knock a few cents off the wholesale price of bananas and pineapples.
Yes, in regards to the horrors of Guatemala.
my little sugarbomb
who knew a simple sentence like that could make me happy
im not fanboiing on a level to rival the worst of trekkies at all….nope no sirree not me….im levelheaded….ignore all the bobbleheads please
fuck knows if its any good ive only watched episode one so far….sure looks and sounds the part tho
watching fallout btw…
I have a co-watcher who played/played all the games, so all the names and easter eggs are explained. The power armor is cool, very Vader-esque.
lol likewise played all the games..even tactics….which took a little getting used to but turned out being kinda cool
but yeah…..cant tell if good..or if im just riding a high of i got that reference!
I saw Conan O’Brien’s appearance on the Youtube show Hot Ones.
He’s wildly funny. I almost wonder if he had taken some kind of painkiller beforehand because he was slurping up some brutal hot sauces, although that’s probably just his personality.
I remember when he was the new guy…
What I watched:Â The eclipse, Baby, and it was fucking perfect! In general, having a day where essentially nothing goes wrong is rare for anyone, but on a day like that, the odds are…astronomical.
Rim tap, sis boom. Good one! We noticed the temperature drop but there was a lot of cloud cover and we were at 90-95%. Awesome for you!
Haven’t watched anything new because this is our busy season over here. We’ve been falling asleep to old Northern Exposure episodes. My wife never saw the show, and she feels like the saga of a New York doctor who finds himelf in the wilds of a small Alaska town is somehow familiar.
She’ll be going to Serbia for five weeks come May, so I’m saving up Fallout and other shows that don’t interest her for then. I’m getting a nice list together.
LAMBIES!!!!
This one is for my buddy @butcherbakertoiletrymaker
Dee Snyder – I’ve see that name in eons.
dudes a shining light on twatter….
or at least he was…i actually follow him and his tweets no longer show up in my feed….
its fully elon musks right wing shit show now…..
fuck your preferences…heres what i want you to see
@Loveshaq That is kick ass. Is it from an album or just a one-off?
@butcherbakertoiletrymaker Walter has a new album coming out but I am not sure if Dee is on any other tracks.
I watched the first 2 episodes of an HBOMAX true crime series, Massacre of the Mormons.
It’s really, really skewed. Like enough that I’m picking up on things that are weird and went off to google it.
Basically, there’s a few colonias and ranches in Sonora, Mexico, that have big Mormon communities. Lots of polygamists who have family in Arizona and Utah, too. Not Warren Jeffs fundie Mormons, just polygamists. So giant family groups. Anyways, in 2019 there was a convoy of 3 SUVs driven by 3 women with kids from one colonia to another, which was a 5 hour unsafe drive through back roads. And they were attacked and a bunch of them killed. The SUVs got separated, so it was really obvious that one family was murdered but they needed to find the other 2 SUVs and see if those folks were alive or not.
The first 2 episodes really present the 1 local cop for the area (legit, the only cop in the area) and some federales as basically just not willing to go up in the hills to look for the missing families. AMERICAN WHITE LADIES AND KIDS, too. OMG must be targeted and intentional. Seriously these families need someone with helicopters to go looking for the missing women and children! Go to the media!
The one cop in the area explained during one of his interviews that he understood their concern, but he was busy in the small town getting the school evacuated and the businesses closed so people stayed safe. major clue 1
And then the family is complaining about the federales who set up a road block on the highway and are waiting for backup. major clue 2
Off to the googles I went, and turns out that this area was under the control of Sinoloa cartel and they were facing incursions from rival Juarez cartel. The first local people to “investigate” the first found SUV were actually Sinoloa cartel members who then went off to the hills to chase down the Juarez cartel. The one local cop was trying to shut everything down in the town because they were hearing spats of gunfire all afternoon from the 2 cartels shooting at each other and he was worried about people being caught in the crossfire. Federales were waiting for military backup because they were outgunned by the cartels, one of which had a mounted machine gun.
Oh and the icing on the cake, for the last decade the Mexican government had been telling the folks in those Mormon colonias that they were living in lawless land that was extremely dangerous.
So while I understand being scared and worried about your family members, it’s a bit disingenuous to depict Mexican law enforcement as not doing anything etc.