Contentious C

If that were anywhere but Michigan, it'd be quite the honor.

I think the Monolithic Conference/TV Market push has gotten so bad that they've probably Ouroborous'd themselves in the process.

I was going to make a snide joke about some team taking a beating for a million-plus dollars, but, uh...wow, all these games on Saturday completely suck. I'll have to come up with a snide joke about the season being too long instead. Something something more concussions?

Well, this was a fun set of Wikipedia jumps. Lovecraft (btw, there's a sex shop in the Baltimore suburbs called Love Craft; never went inside, probably not tentacly enough) -> Non-Euclidean geometry -> SCP Foundation, where I read about SCP-3008, which is "an IKEA store with infinite interior space and no outer physical bounds, causing all prospective customers to be trapped" and "a rudimentary civilization" that forms. Given the recent news story about a kid shooting himself with a gun in IKEA, and given any familiarity with the drug-taking/IKEA swerve meme (that I think may be in the "Fabulous Places" thread, or somewhere like that), I would postulate I don't have to read any short fiction at all that insinuates we're already living in SCP-3008, because it's pretty damned clear that's the score.

Well, is it "up that early" or "up that late"? For my own part, I've pulled waaaaaaay more of the latter. Also, the woman getting on stage was the only bit of that that felt even a little bit off. Maybe not staged, per se, but, well...let's just say I was betting on a large amount of hate-fucking at the after-party. Or perhaps the hate-fucking preceded/instigated the stage rushing.

Well, see, now that I've watched Decline, I won't! I'll just be wondering why he isn't throwing homophobic slurs left, right, and center.

This is part Book thread, part Netflix/streaming thread, part Criterion/collectors thread, big part personal embarrassment, all wrapped up into watching a movie. When bobholly mentioned reading Henry Rollins' book about his Black Flag days, I was reminded of something from a couple of weeks ago. I decided to get a Filmstruck membership for the next year, which will probably give me just enough time to watch a bunch of things I've been meaning to and know which Criterions are actually worth buying and which ones aren't worth owning a physical copy (unless I hit the lottery, in which case, the first big purchase is the entire catalog). But one of the other things that just went away on the site was The Decline of Western Civilization, which I'd been meaning to watch since it got re-released however long ago it was. I watched it and got to the part where they're covering X, and I keep thinking to myself, "Goddamn, John Doe looks so familiar! I know I've seen him in something!" It bugs me enough that I hit IMDb, and, of course, the place I know him from is FUCKING ROADHOUSE. And I realized how that really sums up my life: that fucking movie. Wrestlers, punk rockers, relationships with doctors, and a whole Hell of a lot of mediocrity. If it had someone tooling around on an NES in the background, it would be a perfect fucking analogy. So I hereby offer up my card, to be pulled, for not knowing who the fuck John Doe was. Also, slightly more on-point: --Le Samourai - clearly interesting, can see why it's "great", but I probably need a deeper vocabulary in Melville's movies for it to click with me. Other than the movies it obviously influenced, it felt like the long, no-soundtrack, plodding through the investigation stuff from Day of the Jackal was also lifted from this. --Carnal Knowledge - hey, remember when Jack was a great actor? Garfunkel is boring, and most of his story is boring, but the rest of this was way ahead of its time.

It is almost a little hard to believe this stuff all started 2 years & 2 days ago. It seems like it's been going on for longer. But when the only possible defense, no matter how damp-toilet-tissue-flimsy, for your dumbass position is "I confused an April pre-draft trade attempt/renegotiation with events the following August - 'A' months, right?", well, then, you're a fucking idiot. Clearly, he should angle for a Cabinet position.

It kinda doesn't grant omnipotence, though. I mean, *if it gets used* it almost does, but somehow in the process of watching it in the theater, I completely missed the plot point that Team Titan was able to fend off Thanos so well specifically because wielding the Gauntlet involved making a fist. It's such a little detail, and the moment, for example, when Dr. Strange whispers to the Cloak of Levitation to keep him from closing his hand, or when Tony shoots the Gauntlet with a nano-gizmo, is easy to miss. There's also the fact that Thor throws Stormbreaker straight through a direct blast from the Gauntlet and embeds it in Thanos' chest. And, when the Snap happens, it completely fries the Gauntlet and scars up Thanos' left arm (in a way that looks suspiciously Bifrost-y to me). I feel like what we're supposed to glean from that is that this was the one and only large-scale effect that the Gauntlet could pull off. Now, we're left with someone who could kick the bejesus out of everyone without the Gauntlet and now can just kick more bejesus out of them (as he did for the bulk of the first film) rather than ring the bell for last call on the Universe. So, could Wanda, whose powers are derived directly from a gem, keep him at bay? Why not? "Hey, I just distorted the shape of your hand so it no longer closes. Have fun!" And yeah, Wanda's also been jumping in huge leaps with every movie. Not a ton going on in Ultron, as much support as muscle in Civil War, but with IW, she's going toe-to-toe with Thanos' lieutenants and tossing the space shredders around on the Wakandan battlefield. Also fun fact; guess what Nick Fury's driving in his post-credits scene! It's... it's...!!

I don't know about the rest of you, but basically anytime I see two authors on a book cover, a corner of my brain laughs maniacally and then ignores the book altogether. In fact, it tends to color the output of nearly anything else the author does (with exactly 2 exceptions). And, before anyone says Good Omens - let's just all agree that it's a delightful book with the literary equivalent of a Dusty Finish. I don't think you can have an ending that's as non-commital as that and still be "great". But, Ace posted about Spider Robinson in the other thread, and Spider's Wikipedia page said he and his wife had written a whole trilogy together, so it got me wondering. So whatcha got? (No, GNs aren't under consideration; thus the title saying 'co-authored'...though Abnett & Lanning could make themselves a case)

Nothing at all to do with video games, but when I started this thread I never mentioned the person I was discussing was from San Diego. I'd guess it fits the profile you're sketching.

I went with the PC Special E----OH THAT'S RIGHT, FUCK PC OWNERS.

lol @ "became"

Except the Bud Light!

Also my favorite until I was old enough to really appreciate Empire rather than just be scared by Vader.