Ran

Tár's not streaming here yet, at least. I hope Banshees will be available on that date, but no idea.

A lot of the movies haven't even bee released in Sweden yet -- Tár is apparently not showing up until March(!), The Banshees of Inishirien is opening in late January. Definitely interested in seeing both. On the list above, I've seen three films: Everything Everywhere All at Once (a very good film that is still somehow wildly overrated by the internet), Elvis (good-ish but uneven, Austin Butler does a surprisingly good job, inventive editing as you'd expect from Luhrman), and Triangle of Sadness (not as good as The Square).

For short form, which Andor episode would one go for? As to House of the Dragon, it has to be 8, I'd think, or maaaaybe 10.

We've posted a couple of pieces: Alaric Stark (had no image) and Borros Baratheon (had a low-quality History and Lore image). The image details include the fact that we should always preference real-world art depictions over these AI-generated images, provided they are of suitable quality and we have permission to use them. What do you guys think? Should we continue cracking on with these?

FWIW, I don't think this is true. His ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, made a number of references to his promising to start using his bipolar medication again, or to his having stopped and refusing to use them, at various points. Now, to be sure, it's Kim Kardashian, not the world's most honest person. But still, she at least gave the impression that she was aware of his using or not using medication that was allegedly to treat bipolar disorder.

Wasn't Mawle one of the only actors to get universal praise on the show?

Tony Gilroy sounds like he's very unlikely to continue doing SW projects, per interviews -- he likes doing new things.

I thought that was quite a cheeky little moment. Funny. The deaging effect was really impressive, but apparently ILM has been working on some new stuff to push the boundaries of what they can do. Then again, it was just a brief snippet. I don't know what Indiana Jones movies you've been watching, but his occasional bumbling of something was always part of the character, like the initial exchange with the German giant: And That last scene in the trailer is literally just putting Indy at the other end of the joke that began in Raiders and was continued in Temple of Doom above. It's a funny reference! You have definitely forgotten the comedic beats of these movies.

She was great to see in Borgias.

I have to say that I am fond of Willow, but ... it isn't really a good film, much less a great one. It's fun, though, and is greatly lifted by Val Kilmer's performance as Madmartigan, by the sparks that are practically flying off the screen in the scenes he has with Joanne Whalley (they met during production that started in like March-April 1987, were married by March 1988 before the film even released in May!), and by James Horner's adventurous score.

I'm not sure that she, a working published novelist who teaches writing workshops and interacts with young writers trying to get published today, misunderstands what they are and what they do. A year ago, I recall seeing this article making the rounds on Twitter, and in general it was felt to be an egregious and untypical example of what sensitivity readers and what the culture in the publishing world that they come from can do in a negative way, and yet in the YA world a number of books have been torpedoed because of very similar things. Gullaba's agent was so terrified of giving offense, presumably out of fear of becoming known as that "agent who sends problematic stuff to us", that he basically tried to gut it of the real experiences Gullaba had actually had. Or in the SF world, the case of what happened to Isabel Fall, who made this remark about the fallout from the backlash to her (belatedly, deservedly nominated for Best Novelette at the 2021 Hugo Awards) story: When sensitivity readers are seen by a loud group of critics, writers, would-be writers, and readers as a cudgel to root out wrongthink, there's clearly been a shift in perception of what the job actually is supposed to be about. I suspect that's what Adiche is responding to.

What are prices running for 3080s in the UK? I'm really starting to get the itch and have priced something that's ... well, a lot. But there seems no way around the fact that highish range cards are are expensive unless you go used, and even then they tend to be expensive. Reviews of the I5-13600K made me realize that it was more than sufficient for my productivity needs, and has a much lower TDP than the i7 and i9, so less concerned about keeping it air-cooled. I'm hoping that the new Radeon cards will cause some price movement.

We don't really need misinformation like quotes that are not actual quotes.

Yeah, a lot of early RPG's were first person games. Dungeon Master, Might and Magic, Wizardry, The Bard's Tale...

Every two-bit celebrity in Hollywood has a podcast these days. Why? Because of narcissism? No, because of capitalism-- people believe that celebrities they like are worth listening to, for reasons of entertainment or education, and so celebrities are offered money (Markle got $30 million in her Spotify deal, IIRC) to do podcasts. I guess to some degree you have to be at least a little narcissistic to take the money and go, "Yeah, people _will_ want to hear me on a weekly podcast," but then it's also probably narcissistic to launch a podcast with no funding as an amateur and go, "Yeah, people _will_ want to hear me!" Or to stream on Twitch. Or to Vlog on Youtube. Etc. Lots of people do it, very, very few make money off of it, so Markle's already in the upper echelons of content creators. Having a belief or confidence that you are interesting and have something to say is not, in my mind, an awful thing so long as it's a measured and reasonable belief. I don't particularly know anything about Markle and her views, and certainly I did not watch any of the shows she was on I don't think, so I'm not an audience for her particular podcast. But if she showed up as a guest on ... I don't know, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend or Comedy Bang Bang (did she do comedy?), I guess I'd listen because those are shows I do listen to.