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.

Theresa May has promised a new and bold, amended Brexit deal to be put to the House of Commons next month. By this point the country waits with morbid curiosity as much as anything. Also Boris Johnson is currently front runner to replace her as PM, which may be the most outlandish thing is this whole mess.

Nigel Farage, leader of the newly formed "Brexit Party" (which is, depressingly, estimated to do well in the UK Euro elections despite having no manifesto or stance beyond "Brexit now" and dubious campaign contributions being investigated) was doused with a milkshake on a recent walkabout, which is becoming a trend so much that the police have asked McDonalds to stop selling any takeaway milkshakes in advance of, and for the duration, of his appearance.

However, in my favourite tweet of the year so far, Burger King posted; "Dear people of Scotland. We’re selling milkshakes all weekend. Have fun. Love BK #justsaying". They have since been accused of inciting political violence.

The European Elections are coming up this Thursday and we would encourage all who can to vote.

In America, much of the news focus seems to have been on the deeply divisive new abortion laws introduced in Alabama (though they are not the only one's with such laws). These are expected to be challenged in the courts, with the deliberate attempt to get them in front of the Supreme Court who may well, thanks to now being tilted towards Conservatism, challenge Roe vs Wade.

POTUS 45 is investigating possibly pardoning several members of the US military accussed, or convicted of, war crimes.

Meanwhile, in lighter news (though a tidal wave hitting an orphanage for especially adorable kittens would probably be lighter than some of the above, sorry)...

The Eurovision Song Contest was on over the weekend, a somewhat muted affair compared to recent years I felt, with (Icelands BDSM band to one side) way too many ballads even by Eurovision standards. Madonna's performance was not the show-stopper one might have hoped it would be, and the bit where previous winners showed up to sing other singers winning numbers was perhaps the most fun of the evening.

As is our wont in recent decades, the UK came last with a heartfelt but uninspired performance. We really need to grasp the nettle and go nuts some year, just to see what happens.

After many years, and more episodes than you'd think a televisual juggernaut has finally ended... yes "The Big Bang Theory"'s last episode has aired.

Oh, and that "Game of Thrones" thing too. General comments welcomed, but please, no spoilers out of courtesy of those who haven't seen it yet.

Nan Winton, Britains first woman to present the television news on a regualr slot has died aged 91. She was appointed in 1960, but audience reaction was negative to a woman reading the late night news was negative and she was, and it would be another 15 years before another woman (Angela Rippon who went on to becme a national treasure) was appointed to the position. How times have changed, thankfully.

Yet more DuckTales episodes have aired included some absolute gems, as Della's reunion with the kids she's never seen has been everything one would hope, we find what Lena has been doing since the end of Season 1, and there's a Darkwing Duck episode which is, frankly, brilliant.

That and a couple of Miraculous Ladybug episodes including one where a visitor from the future shows up, dropping hints about future events and we meet a new Miraculous hero we've known since episode 1, and another where we have the possible last outing for Queen Bee and that might have you feeling sorry for Chloe, which is an odd emotion to feel.

Oh, and this week is the last episode of the first season of Doom Patrol, and I REALLY hope they get a second season because this one has been extraordinary. The most recent highlight being Flex Mentallo dealing with the consequences of accidentally flexing the wrong super-powered muscle on a crowded Danny the Street!

Comments

[matrix_dragon]

Man, the fascists continue to demonstrate what delicate little snowflakes they are, don't they? Preach hatred and murder, but panic the moment the milkshakes start flying.

[owlbrigade1]

Yeah. Farage et al have no problem with rhetoric leading literal and actual murder of a MP, but let them be faced with the public anger they incited themselves and they flee back to their buses and whinge that they wanted the public to be angry at other people not them. Bastards, the lot of them.

[crinos]

The delicious part is despite their best efforts, Farage did get milkshaked.... by a Milkshake bought from a Five Guys.

No one ever suspects the Five Guys,

Speaking of TV series ending, Star vs. the Forces of evil also ended in a somewhat controversial and divisive manner (No spoilers, but I will say the shocking twist of the series is that the forces of evil Star was fighting were Privilege, systemic racism, corrupt autocrats, and authoritarian bigots.)

[velacron]

Kinda interesting how once you decide violence is justified against fascism, every opposition becomes "fascist", huh? No way this will backfire!

Pretending that everyone right of center is equivalent to Mussolini makes the word "fascist" lose any meaning, just like the American Right loved to slander their opponents as socialists up until the point where the word lost any sting.

[owlbrigade1]

The UK has two problems with Eurovision, both stemming from the same root cause. The first is we cannot get really top talent like the rest of the Eurovision entrants, and the second is that we keep punting these middle of the road half hearted songs.

The root cause, as always in the UK, is middle class snobbery. We can't have an act that really pushes the boat out (like Conchita or Lorde) because that offends the wilting middle classes because they see it as uncouth. And we can't attract top talent anymore, because the middle class keep on treating it as a joke (because we never win, so vicious circle there) and ridiculing it; leading to the top artists not wanting to take part in case their participation leads to damage to their brand. Aspiring artists avoid it too, in case their participation leads to a kiss of death with their nascent career (they don't want to be eternally branded as "Eurovision artist" by the UK tabloids).

This country, man. I tell ya. I wish we'd stop trying to pursue 1950s middle class attitudes. It is killing us all.

[cainofdreaming]

We really need to grasp the nettle and go nuts some year, just to see what happens.

I can heartily recommend that. We did that the once and won. The first and only time. So of course the people in charge of it here went instantly back to the old ways, sending lukewarm former tango kings and queens to compete.

Oh, and that "Game of Thrones" thing too. General comments welcomed, but please, no spoilers out of courtesy of those who haven't seen it yet.

Would "Your favorite character dies!" be considered spoilers, per se?

[matrix_dragon]

'Would "Your favorite character dies!" be considered spoilers, per se?'

In Game of Thrones, that never narrows down the list as much as it should :)

[icon_uk]

Would "Your favorite character dies!" be considered spoilers, per se?

Not sure, but I'm getting flashbacks to pretty much my entire comic reading habits of the 80's and 90's...

[onsokumaru]

I always rooted against France in Eurovision because I can't stand the chauvinism that's all over french internet on those occasions.
But this time, for once, I really wanted our candidate to win, juts to piss off the haters. As a queer man with north african roots, he has been hated by all the assholes, from racist alt righters to homophobic islamofacists, not to mention the racial-assigners who see him as a traitor for singing in Israel.
My other favorites (as someone who watch that without the sound) were Iceland's leather&nails crew, Israel's Borat look-alike and Azerbaijan's Tony Stark.

The GoT ending was almost ok in my book, which is far less than this great series deserved. It's a shame that in the last episodes, it reached that point where the OUTRAGE! is more entertaining than the show itself.

Still have no idea who to vote for this sunday. Still not sure I'm going to bother, as those two years of Macron's monarchy soured me on most politic groups.

[icon_uk]

I liked the Norwegian trio, especially the chap who seemed to have ambled in from a different song as his sub-woofer vocal range wasn't quite in keeping with the rest, but served the song well.

I also loved the French performance, not just Bilal, but I thought the dancers were excellent, and it's rare to see a lady of that build get that level of exposure when her performance isn't being treated as the butt of a joke.

[icon_uk]

Oh, and my favourite commentary of Game of Thrones recently was this

[zachbeacon]

Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones, Veep, Star Vs the Forces of Evil, Western Civilization, ...

A lot of things seem to be wrapping up lately.

[icon_uk]

Don't worry, the imminent end of the planetary ecosystem will sort out Eastern, Northern and Southern Civilization too...

[informationgeek]

Breaking overnight, Alabama is refusing to air the Arthur episode where Nigel Ratburn gets married to another guy. Because of course they are. They pulled the same crap before when Buster met a kid with two moms.

[gadz00ks]

Ugh, I should not have tried to read the comments on that link. Some of them make me want to vomit.

Wish we had that gif of Bugs Bunny cutting Florida away from the country, except it's Alabama.

[thezmage]

I wasn’t 100% satisfied with the Star Vs the Forces of Evil finale. I loved that final scene but I really don’t feel like destroying magic was the right call and that it needed to be foreshadowed better rather than dropped in an episode before the finale.

I strongly feel like the Doom Patrol might end with a joke about the short-lived NBC sitcom Powerless that Alan Tudyk also had a role in. Either way, I’m looking forward to it.

[gadz00ks]

Yeah, for a show that really centered their conflict around legacies of imperialism and inherited prejudice, they didn't really attempt to solve that in the finale. Which while waving a magic wand to cure racism isn't what I want either, I don't think just destroying magic helped the theme any. Not to mention the billion questions I have about which pure magical creatures where killed (Spider with a top hat!?) and the new status quo regarding the fused world.

But I'm choosing to remember Star vs for the things it did right, so even though I didn't like the ending I'm still going to miss this show.

[informationgeek]

Today, Resident Evil Origins, a collection of RE1 Remake and RE0, hit the Switch! While the price is high, this is the first time I'll ever be able to own and play these games.

Any advice for a newbie?

[icon_uk]

[cyberghostface]

Well... this happened.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/al-jazeera-pulls-video-stating-holocaust-was-different-from-how-the-jews-tell-it

Also GRRM did a blog entry about the future of ASOIAF.

http://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2019/05/20/an-ending/

[locuatico]

AFter finishing Ocarina of TIme for the 3DS, I began playing Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. I will say, I love how good it looks.

I finally watched john WIck for the first time. Yes, it's as good as everyone says.

Tumblr's reaction to the finale is... interesting... Because it is actually serves as a follow-up to the discourse that had with Endgame's "NO-SPOILERS!" controversy, and how both are representative to mainstream media's current obsession with the audience not knowing what will happen next.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Hey, so I've recently been trying to back up my old LiveJournal account, and I've been doing it by saving one entry at a time. Not exactly time-efficient.

Can anyone here recommend any better ways to do it? Ideally something that allows me to read old entries offline would be good, and can keep the comments and get private posts, too.

[skjam]

Saw the 2018 Chinese movie "Shadow" by the people who brought you "The House of Flying Daggers"--Recommended! Costume and set design were especially good.

Am much appreciated at work, but the commute is still a killer.

The latest round of the Traveling Book Project I'm in just started--this time I get to read and annotate "A Wrinkle in Time."

Over at my blog, an anthology of stories by Jewish writers: http://www.skjam.com/2019/05/18/book-review-people-of-the-book-a-decade-of-jewish-science-fiction-fantasy/

[bradygirl_12]

Legends Of Tomorrow wrapped up Season 4 last night with predictable delightful wackiness. Argh, they won't be back 'til January 2020!

I thought they did a good job with The Big Bang Theory series finale. Too often final episodes bring out the worst in Hollywood (overstuffed, pretentious, shock-value-for-shock-value's-sake, etc.), but TBBT hit all the right notes, even with the elevator! :)

[zachbeacon]

I think it helped that TBBT had such a long lead-in to the Nobel Prize* and they tied up loose ends along the way (like Stewart moving out, Leonard making peace with his mom, and Raj breaking off his engagement).

I'm sure some people are annoyed that they never learned Penny's maiden name but the day it aired I was joking that I'd be happy if they just fixed the stupid elevator. Seriously, its been over 12 years.

*Up until the one guy got discredited I thought Sheldon was going to display his character growth by removing himself from consideration so that Amy got a shoot at sharing the prize with the two idiots who got lucky. They telegraphed pretty early on that Amy winning the prize would mean a lot to a lot of people whereas Sheldon winning really only helps his ego.

[deh_tommy]

*SPOILERS FOR GAME OF THRONES*









Arya was one of the few characters I actually liked, so seeing a potential spinoff based entirely around her sounds right up my figurative alley. I just hope that doesn't lean too heavily on the HBOisms that turned me off from Game of Theones.

[ayasugi_san]

Milo Murphy's Law quite possibly also aired its last episode ever. Which would be a damn shame, because the creative crew has a lot more ideas and it's been topping the ratings for the channel block (it even got more viewers than the explicit series finale of Star vs. the Forces of Evil!), but Disney seems disinterested in ordering more.

[thezmage]

Honestly, there were numerous episodes over season two that felt like the creators had completely lost interest, then there’d suddenly be a great episode right when I was willing to give up. And as much as I like Doofenschmirtz, I felt like he took over the show too much.

[xakko]

I'm just shocked I actually have seen a Eurovision contestant perform (having seen Kate Miller-Heidke open for Steven Page back in 2010). She was a joy to watch perform - she came across as genuine and funny and possessing that truly incredible voice - and we immediately sought out her entire catalog. Glad to see her performance was well regarded even if Australia came in 9th.

[tripodeca113]

I've been playing Arkham Knight. It's not bad, but it hasn't really grabbed me.

I also don't like the Batmobile at all. It's clunky and awkward, and I despise how its been forced into everything.

[janegray]

Hear hear.

I enjoyed the story (it was a hell of a lot better than Origin's bad story and Asylum's no story, and it didn't try and fail to make me feel sorry for Talia like City did). But the freaking Batmobile was incredibly annoying. I disliked driving it, disliked fighting with it, and I spent freaking hours in the final section against the Arkham Knight because getting stuck in corners and getting run over.

I also thought that the gameplay overall was less fun. Previous games put more focus on the stealth&ambush style (which is my favourite by far), whereas Arkham Knight seems to favour plain old fighting.

DCU Streaming

[junipepper]

I signed up for DCU Streaming (because Matt Bomer, mostly). I’m happy with the access to digital comics, and the Doom Patrol show is an astounding joy. Very, very high quality weirdness. That cabaret performance.alone... Titans is a bit disappointing, but overall the service is definitely worth the $7.99/month.

Daughters 1 and 2 have both finally completed their insanely expensive university educations, and I think I may be able to afford comic books again. :-)