williamjm

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

Weird, I'm sure I've owned a trade paperback for 18 years (it's not impossible I'm mistaken since I've been in Germany for the last 12 of those and it hasn't, but I'm pretty sure it's a big chunky paperback). Unless they mean just in the US. 

I have the UK trade paperback. I assume they are talking about the US market.

6 hours ago, LongRider said:

Mignon Fogarty: "I was organizing files on my d…" - Universeodon Social Media

I was organizing files on my desktop and came across a screenshot of this old post about an 1884 usage guide that still makes me laugh:

"Don't say ‘gents' for 'gentlemen, nor 'pants' for 'pantaloons.’ These are INEXCUSABLE VULGARISMS. (emphasis added)

 

INEXCUSABLE VULGARISMS...inexcusably awesome!    The link goes to Mastadon.   

Inexcusable Vulgarisms would be a good band name.

5 hours ago, Crixus said:

Lol!!!! Rock, hard place. 

I think any British Public School you choose will have some famous unsavoury alumni, although probably none of them can compete with Eton.

7 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/68163799

Hamilton to Ferrari next year would be a turn up for the books. 

If Sainz is getting displaced I wonder if he will move the other way to Mercedes? Alternatively, perhaps he might look to replace Perez at Red Bull from next season?

1 hour ago, Ran said:

Some re-watching: Galaxy Quest, which I realized on rewatch I've never actually seen the whole thing. Still holds up -- the Thermians are particularly just ridiculously amusing, and the main cast is very solid, even Tim Allen. Tony Shaloub's extremely copacetic performance stood out to me this time, he gets some of the best bits. RIP, Alan Rickman, too.

I think it might have been the first thing I saw Sam Rockwell in and he also gets some good scenes.

On 1/30/2024 at 2:21 PM, AncalagonTheBlack said:

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is an upcoming action spy film directed and co-written by Guy Ritchie, based on the 2014 book Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII by Damien Lewis.

I wonder if the archer is meant to be inspired by 'Mad' Jack Churchill who infamously liked to go to battle armed with a longbow, broadsword and bagpipes?

On 1/29/2024 at 12:36 AM, Iskaral Pust said:

The first episode led off with Finn Russell sneering and smirking as usual (am I the only one who finds him extremely punchable?)

I think Gregor Townsend might often agree with you.

13 hours ago, ljkeane said:

Amazing win for the Windies. Absolutely heroic effort from Shemar Joseph after getting carried off last night he’s come back to pick up 7 wickets and bowl them to the win.

Apparently it was a day for players in their first series taking 7 wickets in an innings to win an unlikely victory.

Two great wins there for the Windies and England. Hopefully the Windies can manage to make victories like this more than an occasional occurrence, although they still have plenty of weaknesses they need to address.

As ever, it's a shame that there's no deciding test match.

I finished Ian McDonald's latest novel, Hopeland. I think the best way to summarise this is that it is showing how two very different families, each with their own obsession, try to find a way to prosper in a turbulent 21st Century. The Hopelands are trying to build a multinational 'family' where kinship is based on choosing to join the family rather than any biological connection while the Brightbournes are trying to create things that will last for generations. Throughout the book there is a love triangle between members of the two families, I think the actual question of who ends up together is not the interesting part of the book but it does drive most of the plot due to the characters taking inspiration from each other's families. As the book goes on an increasing amount of it is focused on the impact of climate change, particularly on the Arctic and the Pacific Islands, with the Pacific plotline becoming the most compelling part of the story. It is a long book with a lot happening in it, including some occasional fantasy elements, but I thought it did justify the long length.

I've now started Adrian Tchaikovsky's House of Open Wounds, the sequel to the excellent City of Last Chances, and this is also very good so far.

1 hour ago, polishgenius said:

Equaliser 2 was worse than the first one for a couple reasons, for me: first, the 'looking out for a local kid' plot that didn't really make any sense or tie into anything beyond the directors wanting him to have someone to fight for in the finale (and just generally the plot was less focused), and second while they didn't forget quite because the finale and the scene where Frank meets the guy's family play up to it, for large parts they lost sight of the fact that the fun of the first one came in large portion from Frank being, to the bad guys,  pretty much a horror movie killer working in the service of good. 

I thought the third film was a lot closer to the formula of the first film than the second was.

53 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

As pointed out earlier, the villains in this season are the dumbest bunch of assholes ever cobbled together. I don't know if anyone is counting, but Reacher and company must have killed like twenty conspirators. Not taking into account operational costs, these idiots were risking their life for at most 3.25 million USD a pop. Great money if you can earn it legally, but to get involved in terrorism in such a way that you will get killed or incarcerated for life as result it really is chump money.

I suspect Robert Patrick wasn't going to be content with just an equal share.

To be fair, they probably didn't think they were risking their lives originally, their original plan was to do things without anyone else noticing and when that was no longer possible they were already committed.

15 hours ago, felice said:

Yeah, that looks pretty dodgy. The number of nominations for the finalists are bizarrely high - in previous years, the most popular novel might get over 300 nominations, and this year seven get over 700? If the numbers are accurate, it looks like some kind of large scale slate nominating, rather than works being disappeared.

I've also seen it pointed out that in several categories the number of ballots required to cast the votes would seem to be larger than the number of ballots recorded as voting.

https://bsky.app/profile/mrmaresca.com/post/3kjhbwjmf5a2d

2 hours ago, Isis said:

Did you see a dubbed or a subtitled version?

It was the subtitled version. 

21 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

For the UK folks I have a question. If I were to stop in London on my way to Glasgow and decide to journey the rest of the way by train, is that advisable and what train services would you recommend? 

On Google I don't really see much of a price difference for the whole trip, so on the negative side I would add several more hours to an already long journey, while on the positive the route is maybe scenic enough to make it worth it.

The most direct route would be the West Coast main line from London Euston to Glasgow. It's also possible to take the East Coast main line from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh and then across to Glasgow. In both cases the scenery is unexceptional for the first 2 or 3 hours but goes through a lot of scenic countryside once you get to the North of England and then southern Scotland. I usually take the East Coast line to go up to Scotland because it's closer to where I live. Train services in the UK are not noted for their reliability, and the train drivers are holding strikes at the moment. I get the impression that the West Coast line has a worse reputation for delays.

Flying would definitely be the fastest and cheapest option (although perhaps the price is closer if you have luggage), but you are obviously not seeing as much of the country. Glasgow Airport is pretty close to the convention centre (unlike Glasgow Prestwick which is a long way from Glasgow).

For completeness, there is also a sleeper train service from London to Glasgow, but that is more expensive.

I remember buying a book I hadn't heard about called A Game of Thrones partly because it had a cool looking map at the start of it.

6 hours ago, Argonath Diver said:

I suppose others' suspension of belief is stronger than ours for whatever reasons. Zorral and I have both lived in the city - myself in Queens on a street that looked exactly like the one he blew a house up on, then walked away. There would have been 20 people with cameras and 3 cop cars within minutes. I think that was the scene that started my skepticism. Every scene in New York has been wildly unrealistic; though I suppose that happens constantly in media.

Although I know plenty about small rural towns like the one he laid a string of corpses in Season 1, and was relatively able to stomach the absurdity. I'm still having fun with the show, I just think it's jumped the shark and consider it more of an unintentional comedy at this point.

  Hide contents

I mean good lord they just had a major pistol vs semi automatic sniper rifles gunfight next to an important funeral and... it didn't shut down the city? Then the assassin is just some "Aw, shucks guys sorry!" bumpkin? Yeesh.

 

Despite the silliness, I am still enjoying the show.

27 minutes ago, Argonath Diver said:

And yeah definitely check out Galaxy Quest. It's a parody, sure, but is legitimately a solid sci-fi movie with some great action scenes and peak Rickman.

I remember a few years ago there was a poll of the best Star Trek movies and Galaxy Quest came third.

36 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

Jesus, that sounds awful.

It does sound like Feist might be disappointed with the sales for his new setting and is trying to link it to the more successful Riftwar books, but I think most Riftwar fans had grown tired of that series long before it came to its end.

2 hours ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

The new Penric & Desdemona ebook is out. i had no idea there was a new one in the works!

Demon Daughter (Penric & Desdemona, Book 12) by Lois McMaster Bujold

https://www.amazon.com/Daughter-Penric-Desdemona-McMaster-Bujold-ebook/dp/B0CRR62CNL

Bujold usually seems to announce them about a month before they come out so there's not much advance warning. It's been a while since she last published a story so nice to see another one.

I saw on Facebook that the hotel bookings should open on the 22nd January.

I watched The Boy and the Heron which I thought was good. It felt a bit darker and more reflective than most of Miyazaki's films although still with some lighter moments and I think in the end did have a hopeful message. The animation was, of course, gorgeous. Nobody seems to know for sure whether this time it will be Miyazaki's last film (I think it is his third 'final' film), but if it is then not a bad place to end.

1 hour ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

I think it's brilliant. The "bread and circuses" approach to the totalitarian regime was somewhat unique in dystopian cinema at the time, and I love how they do it. If I was more cynical I'd say it's oddly prescient.

I think Rollerball and Death Race 2000 had a bit of this as well.

It has been a lot time since I've seen it, I should rewatch it sometime.

1 hour ago, 3CityApache said:

As for newest Ritchie, the one with Aubrey Plaza in it (can’t remember the title) was also at least entertaining (though admittedly I’m not sure how much of it derives from, well, having Aubrey Plaza in it). 

That was Operation Fortune : Ruse de Guerre, it was nothing special but I enjoyed it. I think Hugh Grant seems to have decided to use unusual accents whenever he appears in a Guy Ritchie film.

On 1/5/2024 at 12:10 AM, Fragile Bird said:

Leigh Bardugo’s heroine in Ninth House grows up in a pretty nasty situation as well. I guess all teens think they are being mistreated? Is Ninth House YA?

I think it is not YA itself, but a large part of its target audience is likely to be the fans of Bardugo's YA books.

Two match series are annoying, especially since it seems they would probably have plenty of time to play a decider.