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Dec. 22nd, 2020 10:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Finally figured out how to access HBO Max - which I get with my HBO subscription via Amazon at no additional cost. If you have an HBO subscription, you automatically get HBO Max.
So sampled The Great Pottery Throwdown brought to you by the producers of The Great British Bakeoff. Love Productions and BBC. So it's basically Brits doing pottery. I like the judges better than on Bake-off.
They are nicer and a bit more cuddly.
Also I know more about pottery than baking - I've actually done pottery at different points in my lifetime. I'm not very good at it - it requires a lot more practice and time and devotion than I really have available to me. Also access to a kilm, glazes, and a wheel. And it helps to not be highly allergic to dust and mold. (I'm allergic to the dried clay.)
But I know enough about it - to really appreciate how difficult it is to do well. Watched the first episode - which is both mesmerizing and weirdly comforting. It's a kind competition.
Also sampled Titans - which is a series based on Teen Titans, but with more adult versions of the heroes. It's produced by the same people behind Arrow, Flash, etc - and has the same overall feel.
It's kind of oddly put together. The team isn't pre-set, but slowly finding each other. Grayson's character is interesting - but the actor is very young and very slight - he reminds me a little of the actor who plays the Flash.
However - I do like Kory Anders, who is POC and is a bit of a mystery at the moment.
I figured it out just in time to catch some recent releases - Wonder Woman 1984 over Christmas, Tell Me About It, and The Witches.
The other night I watched Last Christmas - a heartwarming British Christmas Movie that appears on the surface to be a romance, but isn't really. And focuses on the relationships of a young Yugoslavian immigrant with her employer, friends, family and a young man she meets who introduces her to another way of living her life.
Also started His Dark Materials S2 - which is as compelling as S1, but also suffers from info dump - which at times slows everything down. The books had a similar problem. There's a lot of scientific detail in the books. That said, it features one of my favorite female heroines - and the actress playing the role is astonishingly good in it. The point of view is mainly hers, with others playing more of a secondary role.
2. Reading...or rather listening to and reading?
* Promised Land by Barack OBama - on audio. I'm listening to Barack read his book to me. So it sounds kind of like a podcast.
It's rather good. I'm about mid-way through. I keep rewinding. He does a very good job of explaining what it is like to try to get a bill through both houses of Congress. In this case the Affordable Health Care Act aka Obamacare. It's a nightmare - everybody has to put in their two cents and tweak it.
He also does an excellent job of explaining the landmines of foreign policy, and all the players involved. The level of compromise, negotiation, and diplomacy involved. And how often he really had to let things slide or make impossible decisions.
The book also delves into what it is like to be a black man in the Presidency, and how he has to navigate the racial divisions and prejudices throughout his term.
I highly recommend this to everyone. Obama is clear, concise, and forthright.
* X-Factor - the Marvel Digital Comics. I was surprised by the reboot of this comic. It's good. And it's not a superhero comic at all. If anything it's a combo of speculative science-fiction/fantasy and noir mystery. They've formed a detective agency in which they investigate missing person cases - or mutants who have gone missing - to determine if they are really dead and should be resurrected. The twist in these comics - is the writers decided to fully embrace the whole come back from the dead whenever it is convenient or no one really stays trope that rather popular in action science and soap operas. Not only did they embrace the whole trope, they are commenting on the ethics surrounding resurrecting characters, what it means to never fully die, how that changes your view of life and power, including process involved. Also how it affects those who resurrect the characters - without the characters fully earning it.
The whole thing feels like a meta-narrative on the comic book format. It also has a lot of world-building and character development. It is however shorter on plot - not that plot is all that - considering if you go long enough, you've pretty much done all the plots. Let's face it serial comic book readers like serial soap opera watchers don't care that much about plot - we're not reading/watching for that. (I watch and read other things for plot.)
Add to this - the leader of the group is Northstar (the first LGBTA or homosexual superhero in comics. He also may be the first with a wedding issue). Add to that Northstar is a complicated character, hot, and cranky. The book also features Dakken Ahirkiu - Wolverine's kid, who is bisexual. And Prestige (Rachel Summers) who is also bisexual. The X-men comics - have a lot of characters who are either homosexual or bisexual at the moment, including old-standbys who recent came out. It's the most diverse series of action comics I've read.
* S.W.O.R.D #1 - is another welcome surprise. It's a book about a space exploration team, and it goes into the details and logistics on how they can explore space, as well as the inherent risks involved. Also we get one of my all-time favorite female comic book characters back in the game - Abigail Brand. Also, each character is described and summarized in an intriguing manner. A well written ensemble book - that decides to make the lead player Abigail Brand and not Cable, as I'd thought.
* A romance novel that I keep forgetting the name of...but it is about a woman investigating a mystery and a fencing master, who is teaching her to use a daggar in Regency Scotland.
[It's time to go to bed, and my right arm itches and I've no clue why. Am I allergic to something? I don't know. Maybe a mosquito bite?]
Oh according to mother, niece attempted to read Proust, and gave up - because it was too misogynistic. Yeah, that's pretty much why I gave up on Proust. He writes beautifully, but he's such a miserable piece of shit, you kind of think to yourself after a bit, who cares and why am I putting myself through this - life is too short? I felt the same way about Hemingway and Hawthorn.
So sampled The Great Pottery Throwdown brought to you by the producers of The Great British Bakeoff. Love Productions and BBC. So it's basically Brits doing pottery. I like the judges better than on Bake-off.
They are nicer and a bit more cuddly.
Also I know more about pottery than baking - I've actually done pottery at different points in my lifetime. I'm not very good at it - it requires a lot more practice and time and devotion than I really have available to me. Also access to a kilm, glazes, and a wheel. And it helps to not be highly allergic to dust and mold. (I'm allergic to the dried clay.)
But I know enough about it - to really appreciate how difficult it is to do well. Watched the first episode - which is both mesmerizing and weirdly comforting. It's a kind competition.
Also sampled Titans - which is a series based on Teen Titans, but with more adult versions of the heroes. It's produced by the same people behind Arrow, Flash, etc - and has the same overall feel.
It's kind of oddly put together. The team isn't pre-set, but slowly finding each other. Grayson's character is interesting - but the actor is very young and very slight - he reminds me a little of the actor who plays the Flash.
However - I do like Kory Anders, who is POC and is a bit of a mystery at the moment.
I figured it out just in time to catch some recent releases - Wonder Woman 1984 over Christmas, Tell Me About It, and The Witches.
The other night I watched Last Christmas - a heartwarming British Christmas Movie that appears on the surface to be a romance, but isn't really. And focuses on the relationships of a young Yugoslavian immigrant with her employer, friends, family and a young man she meets who introduces her to another way of living her life.
Also started His Dark Materials S2 - which is as compelling as S1, but also suffers from info dump - which at times slows everything down. The books had a similar problem. There's a lot of scientific detail in the books. That said, it features one of my favorite female heroines - and the actress playing the role is astonishingly good in it. The point of view is mainly hers, with others playing more of a secondary role.
2. Reading...or rather listening to and reading?
* Promised Land by Barack OBama - on audio. I'm listening to Barack read his book to me. So it sounds kind of like a podcast.
It's rather good. I'm about mid-way through. I keep rewinding. He does a very good job of explaining what it is like to try to get a bill through both houses of Congress. In this case the Affordable Health Care Act aka Obamacare. It's a nightmare - everybody has to put in their two cents and tweak it.
He also does an excellent job of explaining the landmines of foreign policy, and all the players involved. The level of compromise, negotiation, and diplomacy involved. And how often he really had to let things slide or make impossible decisions.
The book also delves into what it is like to be a black man in the Presidency, and how he has to navigate the racial divisions and prejudices throughout his term.
I highly recommend this to everyone. Obama is clear, concise, and forthright.
* X-Factor - the Marvel Digital Comics. I was surprised by the reboot of this comic. It's good. And it's not a superhero comic at all. If anything it's a combo of speculative science-fiction/fantasy and noir mystery. They've formed a detective agency in which they investigate missing person cases - or mutants who have gone missing - to determine if they are really dead and should be resurrected. The twist in these comics - is the writers decided to fully embrace the whole come back from the dead whenever it is convenient or no one really stays trope that rather popular in action science and soap operas. Not only did they embrace the whole trope, they are commenting on the ethics surrounding resurrecting characters, what it means to never fully die, how that changes your view of life and power, including process involved. Also how it affects those who resurrect the characters - without the characters fully earning it.
The whole thing feels like a meta-narrative on the comic book format. It also has a lot of world-building and character development. It is however shorter on plot - not that plot is all that - considering if you go long enough, you've pretty much done all the plots. Let's face it serial comic book readers like serial soap opera watchers don't care that much about plot - we're not reading/watching for that. (I watch and read other things for plot.)
Add to this - the leader of the group is Northstar (the first LGBTA or homosexual superhero in comics. He also may be the first with a wedding issue). Add to that Northstar is a complicated character, hot, and cranky. The book also features Dakken Ahirkiu - Wolverine's kid, who is bisexual. And Prestige (Rachel Summers) who is also bisexual. The X-men comics - have a lot of characters who are either homosexual or bisexual at the moment, including old-standbys who recent came out. It's the most diverse series of action comics I've read.
* S.W.O.R.D #1 - is another welcome surprise. It's a book about a space exploration team, and it goes into the details and logistics on how they can explore space, as well as the inherent risks involved. Also we get one of my all-time favorite female comic book characters back in the game - Abigail Brand. Also, each character is described and summarized in an intriguing manner. A well written ensemble book - that decides to make the lead player Abigail Brand and not Cable, as I'd thought.
* A romance novel that I keep forgetting the name of...but it is about a woman investigating a mystery and a fencing master, who is teaching her to use a daggar in Regency Scotland.
[It's time to go to bed, and my right arm itches and I've no clue why. Am I allergic to something? I don't know. Maybe a mosquito bite?]
Oh according to mother, niece attempted to read Proust, and gave up - because it was too misogynistic. Yeah, that's pretty much why I gave up on Proust. He writes beautifully, but he's such a miserable piece of shit, you kind of think to yourself after a bit, who cares and why am I putting myself through this - life is too short? I felt the same way about Hemingway and Hawthorn.
no subject
Date: 2020-12-23 07:16 pm (UTC)It has a lot of interesting content. Pretty much all the HBO content, plus all the TNT, Time Warner, and Warner Brothers stuff. I'm playing about in it. It's kind of a more adult version content wise than Disney.
Not well organized though.