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Story Mash-Up! (whatcha reading/watching/playing/etc.)

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Lady N's picture
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Joined: 06/26/2010

Family Guy is occasionally good for some cheap laughs. I don't find King of the Hill funny at all, it seems boring and preachy to me.

Since my last report on Netflix, I've watched:

The Tudors, s1 - costume pr0n, yay. 

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans - eh.

Riverworld - description has nothing to do with actual movie plot. 

The Guild, s3 - Felicia's much better here than she is in Dollhouse. 

Watchmen - eh. I am underwhelmed, I hope the comic is better. Also, I was expecting much more blue dong. 

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Lady N wrote:

Family Guy is occasionally good for some cheap laughs. I don't find King of the Hill funny at all, it seems boring and preachy to me.

Since my last report on Netflix, I've watched:

The Tudors, s1 - costume pr0n, yay. 

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans - eh.

Riverworld - description has nothing to do with actual movie plot. 

The Guild, s3 - Felicia's much better here than she is in Dollhouse. 

Watchmen - eh. I am underwhelmed, I hope the comic is better. Also, I was expecting much more blue dong. 

Love The Guild, thought Watchmen was okay, and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans was better than the second one but not as good as the first.

gro-dhal's picture
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The Old Ye Bard wrote:

Lady N wrote:

 Watching: Dollhouse. Way too much Dollhouse. 

Joss Whedon ♥

I'm going to see Inception tommorrow, celebrating-my-birthday-kinda-thang (except it would nearly be a week ago by then). Can't wait! Also watched A Scanner Darkly last night, rather enjoyable.

 

I just went to see Inception with my mum. I thought it was brilliant, proper tense and exciting. Part Matrix, part Ocean's Eleven with a bit of James Bond thrown in for measure. Ken Watanabe owns pretty hard. Mum fell asleep, which was ironic.

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Joined: 07/24/2010

Reading:

Just finnished the Davinci Code, and am unsure as where to go to next. i think i might go for the LOTR books, which for some reson I just can't get passed the Fellowship Book.

Watching:

Tommorow I am going to finish watching the last episode of "The Colony" and then continue to watch Royal Pains, and Burn Notice.

Playing:

I just started another Oblivion character after finishing "The Saboteur" which wasn't as long as I would have liked it to be. I can't wait for the next Dragon Age 2 because, personaly I thought that Dragon Age Origins was the best Fantasy RPG since Oblivion.

 

Jeroic's picture
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Joined: 06/28/2010

 I've been reading plenty of writing guides. Some of it is commonsense stuff that people tend to learn naturally as they do more and more writing, or take college-level writing courses as I have, but some of it is still necessary and some of it just makes me feel all fuzzy inside. For example,  one of them claims, in my opinion accurately, that fantasy, sci-fi, and all the other speculative fiction is that hardest to write because the writer needs to create a world that is both unique and internally consistent. Which is why it's important to outline even though that's tedious. Nothing's worse than tossing a hundred hard-made pages because they go nowhere.

Astion's picture
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Joined: 07/10/2010

I just saw Creation. Holy wow.

Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connely were fantastic. Both of them gave absolutely heart-wrenching performances. The cinematography was stunning. The script was beautiful and not at all kitch, unlike most period dramas. And best of all, the story was accurate and didn't give way to sentiment on either side of the rift between science and religion. Here is a very important human drama that doesn't shy away from the big questions and the raw anguish of turning away from your beliefs.

Everybody should see it.

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 I have been meaning to give it a watch. On my watch list on your recommendation 

gro-dhal's picture
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I think after that film and Master and Commander Paul Bettany has the market cornered in 19th century naturalists.

Astion's picture
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Not to mention hallucinations. He's been on both sides of that fence now.

Luagar's picture
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Joined: 06/28/2010

Watched Inception last night, spectacular.

Jeroic's picture
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 I tend to avoid hyped movies for a few months. If people still think they're good after it's been pout on DVD, I give it a shot. 

Reading a nice writing guide between fiction works (nothing's out I haven't read too recently). Still on Twilight Princess in regards to gaming. Probably either Mario Galaxy 2 or No More Heroes next. 

EDIT: yes, the parenthetical is hyperbole. There are plenty of books, I'm just having trouble finding one that grabs my attention. 

Astion's picture
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Joined: 07/10/2010

Mulholland Drive.

I don't know what the hell I just watched, but it was incredible.

gro-dhal's picture
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It's like they took the lamest plot twist in existence and made it awesome.

Astion's picture
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"Do you know what nemesis means...?"

Alan Ford is probably the most badass geezer in the history of film.

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Joined: 06/30/2010

Finished Stephen King's Bag of Bones. Awesome story, strange ending. But that IS King, isn't it?

Tomorrow I'll begin Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood. It looks really cool. I'm excited to read it.

Lady N's picture
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Joined: 06/26/2010

Been watching Robin Hood (decent time waste), Nip/tuck (oddly addicting), Pillars of the Earth (not much in the story department, but I'll watch virtually any costume drama). Also re-warched Pan's Labyrinth, which is still awesome. Finally finished up the Dune miniseries, too. I liked it over all, and it was more faithful to the book than the 80's version, but over all I think I preferred the oldie movie for some reason. Atmosphere probably - the costumes in the miniseries were shit on a stick and the mood lighting threatened to burn out my TV (and my eyes). Neither really captured the big themes of the novel in more than a surface fashion, though the miniseries did start getting into it (albeit too late to really make an impression on the new viewer, imo). 

Watched a great Javanese action movie called Legend of the Tsunami Warrior. It sounds ridiculously campy, and it sometimes is, but over all it has a compelling story, good design, and is really badass. Including, but not limited to, pirate ninjas. 

Also finally started re-reading Campbell's Hero. 

Jeroic's picture
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Astion wrote:

Mulholland Drive.

I don't know what the hell I just watched, but it was incredible.

I watched that for my screenwriting class. I went "meh." But I did that for most of the movies we watched for that. 

Anyways, on my three day vacation I read three novels, Mall of Cthulhu by Seamus Cooper (alright, light-toned parody of the Cthulhu thing and the racism people tend to ignore when gushing about Lovecraft. Fits my eccentric habit of holding classics to a higher standard), Halo: Contact Harvest (easily the best of the three, origin story of Staff sgt. Avery Johnson, the three Heirarchs from the games, and Tartarus), and The Archer's Tale by Bernard Cornwell (it was pretty good, but I preferred some of his other work).

gro-dhal's picture
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Astion wrote:

"Do you know what nemesis means...?"

Alan Ford is probably the most badass geezer in the history of film.

www.youtube.com/watch

Astion's picture
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Joined: 07/10/2010

That is FANTASTIC, and so is this. Why haven't I ever seen this before?

Jeroic's picture
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 I've been meaning to do this for a while but never actually did it:

http://jeroic9.livejournal.com/

My own reviews page! Obviously, my quicker opinions will go here, but for detail stuff on bigger things, that's where my stuff will be. And as an added bonus, you guys get to know what my big triple-threat reviews will be for Wednesday: Seamus Cooper's Mall of Cthulhu for the book, the movie will be There Will Be Blood and the Video Game will be Mass Effect 2. 

So head there sometime and tell me what you think.

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Joined: 07/12/2010

I just recently begun reading several books. The will to power about nihilism and an essay concerning human understanding. So far its sorta insightful.

Lady N's picture
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Joined: 06/26/2010

Just finished watching Torchwood: Children of Earth. OMG good. Definitely what I needed after all the fluff on my queue. 

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Minecraft, Starcraft II and Mafia II.

I'm going to be playing goodgames for awhile...

Also watching the odd episode of Samurai Jack inbetween. I'm down to the last season so I'm trying to spread it out. Oh yeah and APB fell through. Not surprising but disappointing, it could have been a great game if they worked more on the core gameplay before the customization. And marketed it better. Along with other things.

Jeroic's picture
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 It's taking me much longer to get through the Zelda games than I had anticipated. By the time I'm done Other M may well be out. 

Has anyone read "The Black Company?" I keep seeing it on the fantasy shelf at my work, and am a bit dry as far as good fantasy novels that aren't LotR go. 

 

EDIT:

Check out my first three reviews here: http://jeroic9.livejournal.com/

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Reading: A Feast For Crows. I've really enjoyed the Song of Ice and Fire series, though its hypersexualizing underage characters and near-sadistic approach to its protagonists gets pretty harrowing at times. For every good thing that a protagonist does or has happen to them, ten or more absolutely horrible things happen. Martin sure likes to pour it on. Despite that, or maybe because of that, it's hard to put down.

(Re)Playing: Deus Ex. Classic. DX3 is just around the corner and looks pretty boss, and it's been years since I really sank my teeth into the original. I'm glad I am though, because they really don't make em like that any more.

Rocking: The new Sword album Warp Riders. They're moving out of their traditional fantasy stoner roots into a more sci-fi/psychadelic sound and I think it works pretty well.

Watching: Adventure Time!

That all sounds pretty typical Internet Male but oh well. A spade is a spade.

Lady N's picture
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Joined: 06/26/2010

Just finished watching Prestige. Generally liked it, but not really fond of how it ended. Would have preferred if it kept some of the mystery. 

Also on a huge Doctor Who binge. British and American English are equaling out in my mind, both seem natural. 

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Joined: 06/28/2010

I recently finished Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut, The Catcher in the Rye and Nine Stories by Salinger. I'm in the middle of The End of History by Francis Fukuyama, The Stranger by Albert Camus, and First as Tragedy, Then as Farce by Slavoj Zizek. I just picked up A Man Without a Country and Armageddon in Retrospect by Vonnegut, and some collection of Oscar Wilde stuff.

I've been a bit busy as you can tell.

 

gro-dhal's picture
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Lady N wrote:

Just finished watching Prestige. Generally liked it, but not really fond of how it ended. Would have preferred if it kept some of the mystery. 

Also on a huge Doctor Who binge. British and American English are equaling out in my mind, both seem natural. 

New series with Matt Smith kicks arse very hard.

Children of Earth was good too, largely because of Peter Capaldi who's one of the best actors working in British TV today. His final scene was probably one of the most affecting things I saw in drama that year.

Jeroic's picture
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 I've been watching through Season 8 of red Vs. Blue. Just saw episode 18. Way to call back to the original premise, Burnie Burns! 

Honestly, the whole season is great. The writing is way ahead of the least two seasons, which were already miles beyond Blood Gulch Chronicles, and with Monty Oum on the team now the production values have skyrocketed.

YH
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Still breathin'.