Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday

[icon_uk]

In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like. Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.

Before continuing, an additional note from the Mod Team. We've noticed, in recent weeks, a tendency for the standards of decorum in some parts of these threads to break down and we've had to freeze some threads. A reminder that our long established Code of Conduct is right here and all posters should be familiar with it, because they will be held to it.

Moving on...

The Oscars were their usual combination of "Of course", and "Really?", though anyone attempting to make a bold fashion statement was pretty much beaten from the outset by Billy Porters amazing Tuxedo gown. Perhaps matched only by Glenn Close's "Aww yeah" reaction to it.

POTUS 45 is having a second summit with North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un. Remembering how well the last one went, the world is not exactly holding it's breath in anticipation.

The Catholic Church has, in the same week, held a four day conference in Rome on how to deal with it's sordid history of child sex abuse and cover-ups, and seen a very high profile case reach it's conclusion, with Cardinal Pell in Australia (a Vatican Treasurer and considered to be the third most powerful official in the Church) being found guilty of such abuse.

Peter Tork of The Monkees, died at 77.

Anything I could say about where Brexit will be by the time this paragraph is finished seems wildly optimistic, as the splits within the various factions and parties are like watching those old graphics they showed in school about how cells divide. Our PM has again delayed the already delayed vote further to the extent that her own Cabinet are rebelling and the only constant is chaos.

And speaking of a warm day in hell, Britain is enjoying some unseasonably warm weather, with the warmest day in February since records began.

Finished The Umbrella Academy's first season, terrific visuals, some great performances (If Aidan Gallagher, the kid playing Number Five, can act like that at 14, he's got a bright future ahead of him) but even though I'm not overly familiar with the title, I rarely felt... surprised by the plot as it unfolded and we desperately needed some

Also got around to finishing season one of "3 Below", the second of Guillermo Del Toro's "Tales of Arcadia" series that started with Trollhunters. More of a slow burn than Trollhunters I felt and some of the affected ways of speaking got old rather quickly (I'm looking at you Varvatos!) but enjoyable in it's way.

The BBC have announced a Doctor Who Virtual Reality special. A 12 minute animated story featuring the 13th Doctor and showcasing the TARDIS console room amongst other locations

And, after searching desperately for something new and upbeat to end on, fans of comedy/horror movies might be interested in Variety's report of a proposed new "Gremlins" project; an animated prequel relating of the adventures of Gizmo (presumably using another name as Gizmo is what Billy named him) when he traveled with a much younger Mr Wing (The character played by Keye Luke in the movies), years before the events of the movies. GIMME! GIMME NOW!

Comments

[katefan]

Very sad to hear about Tork's death. Growing up I used to watch The Monkees in syndication on a local UHF station. It was a staple of my television diet right next to Star Trek. Man I used to love that theme song:

https://youtu.be/5X0NzFz8l0o

[bradygirl_12]

Loved The Monkees as a band and TV show! They were fun and irreverent and the music was catchy. :)

My Oscar take? Christian Bale wuz robbed!

[cyberghostface]

So Comixology has a sale and I’m curious about three titles:

Paper Girls
Saga
The Wicked + The Divine

I’m curious about Paper Girls mainly because of stuff like Stranger Things/It. Wicked because I like Neil Gaiman style stories (it sounds a bit like American Gods). With Saga it’s mainly because I like Vaughan and it seems to have a lot of good reviews.

So basically are all three worth checking out, any issues I should be aware of, etc.

[locuatico]

Saga does eventually fall into over relying on killing of characters to make for drama and all that sutff.

Personally, I would say around issue #30 is when the series begins to take a dip in quality for me.

[deh_tommy]

In my opinion, you can't really go wrong with any (or all) of them. They're all great stories, though Saga occasionally goes on long hiatuses.

[locuatico]

Overwatch announced a new hero yesterday. who is basically a haitian ex-terrorist who decides to rebel against his bosses and become a hero an make the world a better place... one bulltet at the time.
He is also a Healer.

I began playing Cave Story for the first time in years. It's so nice to be back to this little game.

I just discovered there was a Adam Sandler/Andy Samberg comedy out there "That's my boy".
For some reason, the idea of Sandler and Samberg in the same room at the same time sounds surreal, like the mere idea they both exist in the same plane of existence is news to me.

Been catching up with Jojo's bizzarre adventures and I must say, I think i find Vento Aureo more engaging and fun than Diamond is Unbreakable

[long_silence]

Adam Sandler was in an episode of Brooklyn Nine Nine where he just played himself and roasted Samberg's character Jake.

[mastermahan]

Vento Aureo isn't perfect - the explanation for how King Crimson works is a hot mess - but Bruno and Guido in particular are great fun to watch.

[zachbeacon]

Finally got around to watching the new She-Ra on Netflix. It was pretty good.

Donald Trump "won" big at the Razzies. Also I'm told that there was another lesser* award ceremony this weekend but who cares; that thing didn't even have a host.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/razzie-awards-2019-holmes-watson-named-worst-picture-1178559/item/worst-picture-1181270

*Nice to see the Oscars bounce back from the "Best Popular Film" controversy by once again giving "Best Picture" to something no one saw.

On a more somber note, apparently some big names like Carol Channing, R. Lee Ermey, Verne Troyer, and John Mahoney were left off the ‘In Memoriam’ segment. At least they remembered Stan Lee.

[astrakhan42]

The We Hate Movies podcast calls these omissions "getting Farina'd", named for Dennis Farina getting left off the memoriam reel in 2013. They had a running bet on whether it would happen to Verne Troyer. To me, the most unacceptable snub for the reel was Dick Miller.

[cyberghostface]

Deadly Class is a really fun show. Benedict Wong is great, the MCU really wasted his talents. Likewise Lana Condor with X-Men.

[thezmage]

The “Sunrise Movement,” a supposed environmental group that’s funded primarily by Wall Street and fossil fuel money (https://mobile.twitter.com/blanarph/status/1099902207002984448?s=21) confronted Dianne Feinstein (90% lifetime record of voting to help the environment) with a bunch of children this week. After routinely talking over and interrupting her and refusing to acknowledge the environmental protection bill she was working on, they eventually edited all of the footage together to make it look like Dianne Feinstein walked in there, told them to go to hell, then left.

In the unedited footage, she treats them like adults, asks for feedback on her bill, and offers one of the children an internship.

https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2019/2/23/1837145/-Unedited-Footage-Of-Feinstein-Shows-Her-Engaging-Kids-Offering-One-An-Internship

After their deceptive editing was exposed, they hastily planned a protest of Mitch McConnell, an actual climate change denier who was actively fighting again environmental protections. He promptly had them arrested. It’s still early, but nowhere near the same amount of outrage is expected

[deh_tommy]

Expected for what?

[raspberryrain]

This is literally the first I have heard that the Sunrise movement is funded by fossil fuel money. That doesn't fit either ecologically or redistributively with the Green New Deal agenda.

I looked at your link. The claim apparently comes from the younger Rockefellers sinking money from their family fortune into the group, which is not the same as the group being a front for Chevron or Exxon.

[kjn]

In news from other places in the world, the Swedish Academy once again suffered a long-expected setback, as former permanent secretary Sara Danius formally resigned from her chair in the Academy.

In a conflict based on accusations about rape and about male privilege, where six women and one man now have left the Academy, it is strange to hear the current permanent secretary Anders Olsson's words that the conflict has nothing to do with gender.

[icon_uk]

Cheers, we appreciate the update from other parts of the world. Though this IS definitely an odd one.

[commodus]

Hello everybody! I hope you are all doing well! On the gaming front, have any of you ever played Skullgirls? I'm really enjoying it. I mean, it's a bit fanservice-y for my tastes (Which is especially weird when some of the fighters canonically aren't even 18) but the story and characters are all so unique and well defined when you look past that.

[dewinged]

I'm not a fan of the fanservice either. But, all of that was (I believe) hand-drawn, and the animation is amazing.

I will admit my personal fave is Peacock.

[informationgeek]

Biggest news of the day as a geek, Detective Pikachu Trailer #2 has dropped! Lots of more Pokemon are shown off here~

There are some spoilery shots in it, but mostly for those who haven't played the game.

[thezmage]

Also Ryan Reynolds uploaded the following video about his process for the film that’s worth a watch

https://youtu.be/V3_LgIDqOwo

[scorntx]

Finally got around to seeing The Lego Movie 2 at the weekend.
... honestly... not sure how I feel about it.
Not a bad movie, by any means, just... I 'unno.

Replaying Mass Effect 2 as a Renegade, but I keep hamstringing myself by not bringing myself to be a total rat-hearted bastard.
Which, given how the points system works, makes it difficult.

Watching Star Trek Discovery, and it's nice that they brought back that character (albeit in a somewhat out-there method for Trek, but hey. Ain't gonna complain.)
But the real bit that's bugging me is the portrayal of Section 31 being something everyone and their mums knows about.
Or at the very least that S31 are truly awful at keeping themselves secret, and the only reason Bashir never noticed is because he was Bashir.
Also, the whole thing with Spock is actually... not very interesting? I mean, Mysterious Godlike Being is sort of interesting, but the whole Spock thing isn't?

Tentatively cautious for Captain Marvel.

[thezmage]

Re: Discovery:
I never really got into DS9 so I don’t know how section 31 was portrayed there, have they really been treating it as an open secret, or just something Pole and Burnham know? I’ll admit that just holding those badges all of the time to dramatically reveal them by unfolding your hands is not the best technique

Honestly, I’m not so much intrigued by the Spock story as I am by posting the words “Spockblocked” on social media every time they tease his appearance but it’s somebody else. I’m betting he’s the mystery person this seasons

[tripodeca113]

The Walking Dead had its lowest ratings since the second episode of season one. I think this franchises time in the spotlight might nearly be over. I guess producers don’t really think about the long term sustainability of TV shows, and just make them until there no longer profitable, but this attitude often causes them to lose popularity, because viewer good will has it’s limits.

We have two more episodes of Star Wars Resistance to go, before Hux puts on his silly hat.

I played Return of the Obra Dinn, good game but I think I’ll get it when its on sale.

I’ve been reading about the live action remakes Disney plans to make. Currently they seem to be focusing on the films from 1989 to 1998, (presumably because this is the best time to exploit nostalgia of these films, from people who grew up in the 90’s). Truly there is no vaguely popular franchise which will avoid some sort of revival, remake or reboot. I wonder if we’ll get a live action Pocahontas film? Probably not, but who can tell.

Anthem came out it doesn’t seem to be doing so well. It’s pretty much a Destiny clone, which while competent, is bland and unmemorable. I guess the problem wit Live Services, is that to keep you playing forever, the developers can’t really have anything very interesting happen, so you just do mindless busywork. I fear Bioware will go the way of, Origin, Bullfrog, Visceral , Westwood, Marxis and others. Ah well, I’m sure even if the studio is closed down, EA will exploit the properties people liked, at some point in the future.

[deh_tommy]

Are you saying Destiny is bland and unmemorable or are you saying Anthem is bland and unmemorable? I disagree with the former, in any case.

I'm intrigued by Anthem and hope the game does well. That's been rather unfairly treated pre-release, in my opinion.

[deh_tommy]

I managed to find Project Zero, or Fatal Frame as that's known in America, for the original Xbox at our used tech shop recently. That should be backwards compatible with the Xbox 360, but that doesn't seem to be working for me. Would anyone know why? Is that because of the model I have? Is that because that's technically not Fatal Frame?

(frozen)

[cygnia]

About bloody time...

After Disturbing ‘Captain Marvel’ Trolling, Rotten Tomatoes Makes Drastic Changes

(frozen)

[deh_tommy]

Seripusly, between stuff like this, the whole Gamer/Comicsgate fiascos, Black Panther, Battlefield V, that new YouTube-exclusive Robin Hood film and much, much more, why do people cry "agenda pushing" over things that have a female protagonist(s), minority character(s) and/or LGBT+ representation? What agenda is being pushed? The fact that they... exist?

[thezmage]

Bernie Sanders has a town hall on CNN in DC last night, in which he was asked some tough questions (that he evaded)

His fans on Twitter immediately set about doxxing anybody who asked him questions, trying to find any way to tie them to one of their convenient enemies possible. Surprise: a debate being held in Washington DC attracted a lot of people who were involved in government. A college student who asked him about the sexual harassment on his campaign had to delete her social media accounts already

[skjam]

Snow continues to make up for lost time here in Minnesota.

Over at my blog, I review one of Tanith Lee's less good books. Content warnings ahoy! http://www.skjam.com/2019/02/24/book-review-the-storm-lord/