The year is 2127. Most of the Earth is ruled by hyperintelligent raccoons. Britain remains independent, under the reign of King Wetherspoon The Second. And the last British citizen authorized to smoke tobacco is about to die of old age.
Yeah. Except soap operas cost very little to make, and MCU movies cost upwards of a quarter of a billion dollars. I *like* superhero movies, and the supply is limited, so it's a pity the biggest player has gone in a direction I find extremely tedious.
There was a goose on the field at Wrigley, they played on
Agreed.
Yeah. I watched the first Iron Man at the weekend, and it was so much *fun*. Here's a guy who has an adventure -- followed by 30 seconds of Samuel L Jackson being cool and mysterious. The end.
The latest MCU movies are so tangled in backstory they can barely move. At some point I stopped caring. 🙁
It's OK up to a point.
Return of the Jedi: 3rd in a trilogy, makes more sense if you have seen the first two. Fair.
Marvel Stupidity War: You have to see 15 movies, 83 hours of TV, and the special re-releases of 3 movies from the first 15 to appreciate the plot, if you still care by then. WTF.
People complain arthouse cinema is inaccessible. But say what you will about Bergman or Tarkovsky or Wong Kar-wai, they never told people to do tens of hours of homework.
The Seventh Seal is about a knight in a spiritual battle with Death. That's the background. Simple.
People complain arthouse cinema is inaccessible. But say what you will about Bergman or Tarkovsky or Wong Kar-wai, they never told people to do tens of hours of homework.
The Seventh Seal is about a knight in a spiritual battle with Death. That's the background. Simple.
It's OK up to a point.
Return of the Jedi: 3rd in a trilogy, makes more sense if you have seen the first two. Fair.
Marvel Stupidity War: You have to see 15 movies, 83 hours of TV, and the special re-releases of 3 movies from the first 15 to appreciate the plot, if you still care by then. WTF.
There's actually a fun story behind this: the guy who was NYC superintendent of school buildings from 1891 to 1923 was an architect who believed in holistic learning, and wanted to inspire kids to rise out of poverty by giving them a sense of the possibility of granduer through construction.
Uath Mammoth
Nothing beats that top notch Fanatics quality
Cocaine was popular and legal in late 19th century Britain. Sherlock Holmes was depicted as using it. 😀
Yeah. People can be obnoxious about insisting "facts don't go away when you won't believe in them," but fail to apply that concept to their own brains.
They think they're an entity of pure reason, free from biological feelings. It's a short step from that to mystical belief in an immortal soul.
SF is great for holding a funhouse mirror up to the present, or giving a new look to old stories. For actual prediction, it sucks.
Some fans don't get it. And SF marketing encourages them to not get it -- like a stage magician asked if they really have psychic powers, who just smiles and winks.
CT is not wrong, but much of Canada's Stanley Cup drought is sheer bad luck.
🇨🇦 teams have reached the final 8 times in 32 years (less than you'd expect from 🇨🇦 all else being equal, but not nothing).
5 of those best-of-7 series were decided by 4 games to 3. We just... haven't made it over the top.
Yeah, but the purpose of a boxing match is not to cause death.
Fair enough, but:
1) A lot of very talented hockey players have felt differently. Wayne Gretzky, for one.
2) Winters in Edmonton suuuuck, I used to live there and I know. 😉
People can take any political position they want, for any reason they want, whether I personally agree with it or not.
And if people feel a connection to a country they don't live in, mostly it's not political -- it's sport, food, holidays, family, etc.
It's relevant if you say opposing abortion is bad *because* of a connection to the USA.
If a Brit feels affinity to 🇺🇸 for any reason, and it motivates them to oppose abortion or monarchy or support the 🇺🇸 football team, that is within their rights and does not make them disloyal to 🇬🇧.
Yeah. We all know which cricket fans Tebbit was bothered about, and they weren't white Australians. Or my white Canadian self, not comprehending cricket at all.
Also to CT'S point, the NHL has a salary cap system, so 🇨🇦 can compete on raw player salaries. But the tax thing makes a difference. And frankly, hockey players can enjoy better weather and more of a celebrity lifestyle in Florida or California compared to Toronto, let alone Edmonton or Winnipeg.
Or if you assume each of the 5 Stanley Cup series settled by 4-3 was basically a coin flip, there's a 1 in 32 chance of the 🇨🇦 team losing all of them. Our luck has been awful.
Maybe this year will be different. Let's go Oilers! (And Ottawa, and Montreal if it comes to that.)
Let's say in any given year, there's a 10% chance of a 🇨🇦 team winning the Stanley Cup. Which is very conservative, since currently 22% of the teams are from 🇨🇦.
Then in 31 years (1 Cup was canceled by lockout), there's a 96% chance of at least 1 champion from 🇨🇦. Our luck has been *terrible*.
CT is not wrong, but much of Canada's Stanley Cup drought is sheer bad luck.
🇨🇦 teams have reached the final 8 times in 32 years (less than you'd expect from 🇨🇦 all else being equal, but not nothing).
5 of those best-of-7 series were decided by 4 games to 3. We just... haven't made it over the top.
I used to live near Grantchester. The show is a more accurate guide to the modern place than you might think. 😀
Yeah. My go-to example is Jurassic Park. Great story, but its premise of reading dinosaur DNA from amber is impossible. As in, "for this to be true, the entire science of chemistry has to be wrong".
SF is telling stories, not writing instruction manuals.
SF is often pitched as anti-literature, for people impatient with metaphor, symbolism, etc.
But subtext doesn't go away when you refuse to believe in it.
And SF isn't a guide to the future, any more than John Wick movies are a manual for fighting bad guys.
SF is great for holding a funhouse mirror up to the present, or giving a new look to old stories. For actual prediction, it sucks.
Some fans don't get it. And SF marketing encourages them to not get it -- like a stage magician asked if they really have psychic powers, who just smiles and winks.
A grid photo of 16 different characters all played by the legend Tim Curry.
Tim Curry, the absolute legend, turns 80 today. This man took huge swings.
It dovetails with the Ayn Rand notion of a handful of heroic geniuses, without whom nothing can function.
The whole thing is nonsense on stilts. Nobody is indispensable. Progress is made by teams of smart people who are able to cooperate.
