Both a sensitive movie about coming to terms with the transition from war to peace at the end of WWII (as well as foreshadowing some other transitions) and a really average seance horror movie. Overall I don't regret watching it but this didn't need the hokey special effects (down to an actual shot of a photo with its eyes moving a little bit).
Heart of Stone
80% Mission Impossible, 20% Minority Report. Nothing new to see here, but it's a fun enough ride.
Luther The Fallen Sun
Luther hits the big screen. Really not the same without Ruth Wilson. It's fun and over the top but more silly than dark.
Paradise
Scientists figure out how to transplant literal years of life from the poor to the rich. What could go wrong? Lots of twists and turns, this was pretty good.
The Pope's Exorcist
Russel Crowe shows off his Italian, retcons the Spanish Inquisition and shows the devil the door. It's OK.
Music
Where is my mind
Amazing performance of an incredible song.
Podcasts
Search Engine
PJ Vogt's something turns out to be Search Engine, which so far has consisted of idiosyncratic deep dives that remind me of another podcast that died too soon...
TV
Hijack
Two hours of thrills unfortunately packed into a 7 episode show. A couple of episodes in I was rooting for the Hijackers. By the fourth, I just wanted the plane to be shot down. They spend three episodes figuring out the guns are loaded with blanks, although to start with they insist the guns are fakes which is a different proposition entirely and then it turns out that they also have real bullets. That's about 3 hours of plot. Feels like it was written in one sitting and then never checked for continuity or tension or interest. When Generative AI is making TV shows on demand this is what I imagine they'll be like.
Jack Ryan Season 4
I've got some good news and some bad news.
The good news is that you get to make one more season of Jack Ryan.
The bad news is that we really had to scrape the barrel to fund it. Your primary sponsor is the State Tourist Board of Myanmar. Their goal is to keep people away so you only get to include shots that look like the suburbs of LA and the plot can't do anything to upset the Junta. Other than that you have complete creative freedom. Although Jeff insists that one scene can be summed up as "No, Mr. Ryan, I expect you get to wrapped up like a cucumber".
We also got a few bucks from JLR so every third shot has to be a Range Rover looking awesome. Have fun!
Silo Season 1
Foundation was a big disappointment to me, de-Azimov'd generic SciFi, so I was pretty nervous about Silo. It's an adaptation of the first few installments of Hugh Howey's epic Wool series. The TV version doesn't dare to be quite as good as Wool, but it's pretty decent with a great cast and spot on production design. Looking forward to the next series already. If you haven't read the books then you're missing out.
The Outlaws Season 2
At this point it's Breaking Bristol. It's rare to get dramedy right, this is great.
The Witcher Blood Origin
Ever wonder where Witchers came from? Me either, but they're going to tell you anyway. This has an awesome cast - Michelle Yeoh with Lenny Henry! And the special effects and production values are similar to the main series. It's not that good though. Four episodes is a really awkward canvas. It might have been a tight film or an entertaining series but it's both not enough and too much for the space available.
(All images included with ITHCWY reviews are the property of their respective owners and are used to illustrate reviews only.)
Red Swamp Crayfish #photo#stowlake#sanfrancisco#crayfish Photo of a Red Swamp Crayfish (crawfish, crawdad) at Stow Lake in San Francisco, California.
Google Pixel 6 Pro 7mm f1.9 1/320s ISO44
A Red Swamp Crayfish at Stow Lake in San Francisco. It is confronting an 85lb lab and is not interested in backing down despite being only six inches long.
ITHCWY is venturing into the Fediverse. This is the second attempt, I had a brief-lived API implementation to a bot account that didn't go so well. This time I've hooked up Bridgy Fed, which is free and easy and so far seems to work pretty well. I added webmention support last year which helped with the process. You can add me as @[email protected] or use the form on this page. If you reply to a post in the Fediverse it will end up as a comment on this blog (and vice versa).
(Published to the Fediverse as:
Shenandoah Valley #timelapse#video#stars#4k 4K time lapse of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia featuring two sunsets, fireflies and the milky way.)
Losely a sequel to Zeroes (same universe, different lead character), Invasive is a thriller about saving the world from genetically modified killer ants. It's a very competent beach read kind of book, keeps the pace moving along briskly and gets the job done. His Miriam Black series is much better (and darker) and I am on the cusp of dipping into Wayward, the sequel to the rather good Wanderers.
Killing Moon
I thought I was done with Harry Hole at the end of Book 12, but he's surprisingly back and with an ending that strongly hints at more. This time Harry is forced to solve a crime outside the Norwegian police by some hand waving circumstances in Los Angeles. The main plot is another very nasty killer with many red herrings along the way. This series is my favorite Scandinavian Noir and it's a very solid installment but start at the beginning if you're new to it. There is a lot of history with many of these characters.
The Starless Crown
I really struggled to finish this book, to the point it backed up my reading and had me turning to Netflix for several months. It's a pity because the concept is great, a fantasy quest in a distinctly Sci Fi milieu, and many of the scenes are phenomenal. Maybe it will make a great movie or TV series one day. But the actual mechanics of the prose are leaden and tropey. Not a series that I'm planning to continue.
Movies
Blackberry
I watched Blackberry expecting to find out something interesting about the history of the famous business accessory, or maybe the phone version of the outstanding Halt and Catch Fire. Nope. Apparently they built it with swearing and then once people fell in love with the iPhone the company died. Nothing to add here.
Discontinued
Funny movie about our particular version of reality getting shut down. I like that the reason for the simulation is inconsequential, see this.
Fast X
This is one of those irritating moves that doesn't really end and just sets up the next chapter. It's also an exercise in too much CGI, some of it unforgivably bad. Beyond that I don't remember much, and I don't know much about cars so the fact he's in a Spaghetti Chiron Ghia means nothing to me. Some of the earlier installments were OK. I've watched between 3 and 12 of them.
To Catch a Killer
To Catch a Killer is a competent, adult police thriller set in Baltimore. It doesn't have any particular angle or seeming reason to exist in today's cinematic landscape. It's just a well made gift that arrived for no reason. Lucky rent.
Music
Don't Delete the Kisses
Low key but can't stop going back to this by Wolf Alice.
TV
The Days
The Days tells the story of the immediate aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. A nuclear catastrophe is always pretty gripping and I was pretty gripped. They clearly didn't have the budget to compete with HBO's Chernobyl though, and seem to have gone for a daytime Emmy instead. The special effects were not that great, and some of the acting was more horrific than the meltdown. There is one nuclear advisor who emotes surprise like a Tasered fish and you wonder if AI actors might be a blessing in some cases.
(All images included with ITHCWY reviews are the property of their respective owners and are used to illustrate reviews only.)
Black Crested Night Heron #photo#heron#ggp#sanfrancisco#stowlake Photo of a black crested night heron and two turtles at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.
Google Pixel 6 Pro 19mm f3.5 1/235s ISO36
A black crested night heron with a couple of turtles at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park.
(Published to the Fediverse as:
Black Crested Night Heron #photo#heron#ggp#sanfrancisco#stowlake Photo of a black crested night heron and two turtles at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.)
